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Raaje Sheehn, Mukaddam Kutte
Punjab
continues to kill with impunity in police and prison custody
Jagmohan Singh
 NEW
DELHI:
Raju Sharma was arrested for a petty robbery and tortured
mercilessly for recovery of the materials stolen by him. He
succumbed to his injuries.
Anita Duggal was
mercilessly beaten by women police personnel in a police chowki at
the behest of the local Deputy Superintendent of Police.
Sulakhan Singh
was a relative of a slain militant, killed some years ago. Sulakhan
was suspected to have truck with militants from across the border.
He was picked up and tortured to uncover the truth. His frail
framework could not bear the inhuman maltreatment. He died. He was
shown to have disappeared.
Ram Prasad is a
Rickshaw puller. He was alleged to be a drug conduit. Despite
sustained torture, he could not divulge details. He died. He was
shown to have committed suicide in custody.
Do these
incidents sound familiar? Did they happen when Punjab was “going
through a bad phase”? Do they happen on the Indo-Pak borders where
the cries of the accused and their families cannot be heard?
No. It happens
all over
Punjab.
It happened in the last two years. It happens every day, in almost
every police station of
Punjab.
Torture, beatings and custodial deaths in
Punjab
are the norm, not the exception. The people have accepted it. The
politicians deny it at UN meets in
Geneva and
before every other international forum and during diplomatic
briefings, but “accept it as the only means of interrogation”. They
justify to “keep up the confidence of the people in the system”.
Once in a while,
the Indian judicial system also rises to the occasion. It did last
week. It did after 22 years. The Supreme Court took up a Public
interest petition filed by D K Basu in 1986 and pending since then.
The chief justice of India, K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice P
Sathasivam were informed by counsel Abhishek Singhvi that 80 persons
were killed in custody in 2006 and 63 in 2007.
 Mind you, these
are government statistics. It would be unwise to extrapolate it in
any way, but the numbers are atleast three to five times this
figure. It would be naïve to accept the government figures that put
custodial deaths to one and two in 2005 and 2004 respectively.
And in case you
have some faith in the prison system of the country, read further.
Unless you are Raju Ramalingam or Kasab, judicial custody is as bad
as police custody. Of the 80 deaths in 2006, 73 were in judicial
custody and seven in police custody. In 2007, 60 of the deaths were
in judicial custody and three in police custody.
If you think
that
Punjab
alone is guilty. Think again. Other states have simply failed to
reply to the court’s direction for filing details of custodial
deaths.
The Hong Kong based Asian Centre for Human Rights found that 7,468
persons, or an average of 1,494 persons per year (four persons
daily), have died or been killed in Indian prisons and police
custody during the period 2002 to 2007. Some die within
less than a day of being arrested.
No civilised
country would have accepted and the media would have gone hammer on
tongs on the next admission in court. The amicus curie lawyer in the
PIL said, “The state government had not taken action against those
responsible for this.” Did anyone expect any action?
Human rights
activists and civil society in
Punjab
is quiet. Some political parties and groups do raise some concern
from time to time but there is no sustained campaign to challenge
this.
The ultra
patriotic Indian print and satellite media makes some murmurs about
custodial deaths, but it is more of a whimper for in these days of
recession, the “rich Indian media” is also looking for sops from the
government and already some high level “out of the media glare”
meetings are taking place. In such circumstances, it would be too
much for the underprivileged and the affected families of victims to
expect independent and fair reporting from the eulogistically called
mainstream media honchos. Isn’t it?
 Civil society
beyond
Punjab is
not much concerned about
Punjab,
“because not much is happening.” Diplomatic circles of
Delhi are more
abuzz about the “turnaround in
Kashmir”
and the “decimation of Tamil Tigers.” And in any case, I can recall
that once the guns fell silent in
Punjab,
the Punjab Desk in embassies of western countries were shut down.
Non-violence and human rights are good preaching tools of those
already well-entrenched. All governments, perhaps without
exception, use the worst kind of violence and show utter disregard
for human rights per se and their international commitment to UN
instruments, when it has to take action against those in the throes
of any identity and aspirational struggles.
Torture in
India
is endemic and the torture of Punjab police is quiet famous. Police
personnel and administration in Punjab take pride in the fact that
their policing methods are the best. The present government is still
toying with the idea of setting up a
National
Police University. Whether how to avoid custodial deaths will be a
topic, I am not sure, but how to avoid being prosecuted for torture
and custodial deaths will certainly be taught. The services of
“statlwarts like KPS Gill” who still make forays to Punjab to advise
and dwell upon methods to fight terrorism will certainly be sought
to frame the syllabi of the proposed university.
These self
anointed experts will never advise the country to amend the Indian
Evidence Act of 1872, under which, "in case of custodial death, the
onus of proving of innocence may be fixed on the police". Article 21
of the Constitution of India which states that, “No
person should be deprived of his life or personal liberty except
according to procedure established by law” does not seem to apply in
a large number of cases in
India.
God forbid what is to be expected under the new anti-terror
provisions.
This regime of
torture and custodial deaths tilts heavily against political
adversaries, human rights defenders like Jaswant Singh Khalra,
Dalits, women, people of border areas and those who present any kind
of challenge to the police and political bigwigs.
The chief
minister of
Punjab
–Parkash Singh Badal is primarily responsible for suppressing an
interdepartmental report about the custodial death of Bhai Gurdev
Singh Kaonke, killed in police custody after merciless torture, near
Jagraon,
Ludhiana by one of the senior police personnel, enjoying close
relationship with the chief minister. Is it possible that under his
dispensation, things can be different for the common man? “Raaje
Sheen, Mukadam Kutte” –did not the Gurus say this?
For the common
man, it is always wise, “to keep a safe distance from police
stations, and government hospitals in India and in Punjab.” For
ordinary people, both spell, fear and death.
 The Punjab Human
Rights Organisation, Voices for Freedom, Lawyers for Human Rights
International, Andhra Padesh Civil Liberties Committee, Peoples
Union For Civil Liberties, MASUM in
West Bengal
–all and many more have been cataloguing torture and custodial
violence. The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre in
Delhi has
documented year after year torture and custodial deaths.
Invariably, the Indian state has the temerity to say, “a country of
Gandhi, wedded to the spirit of non-violence and peace, does not
torture and does not abuse human rights.” The National Human Rights
Commission is still without claws to take face the challenges posed
by the gross and systematic violation of human rights in the
country.
Those activists
disgusted with the system and delay in the judicial systems seeking
international intervention also face a dead end, for India refuses
to officially allow the Special Rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment to visit any
part of India. Even Amnesty International has been denied such
permission.
India
refuses to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and
its Optional Protocol.
For those who
are still not convinced, please view the clipping of a sub-inspector
of police caught of camera brutally torturing 7 year old Kamla in
full police and public view in Itawah in Uttar Pradesh.
And for those
who think that all these are aberrations, do not forgot the warning
of
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller. In case you do, next would
be your turn.
And
for those, who are concerned, the fight for justice must go on.
The names at the
beginning of the piece are fictitious and the circumstances altered
to maintain confidentiality. Such cases happen every day.
Jagmohan Singh
is a human rights activist and commentator based in Ludhiana. He may
be contacted at jsbigideas@rediffmail.com
11
February 2009
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