Police torture victim dies after 16 yrs; DSP, SI among 4 booked

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 11

Justice delayed is justice denied. This turned true in the case of a 37-year-old woman, a police torture victim of Rasulpur village in Jagraon, who breathed her last on Friday.

The Jagraon police today registered a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide) and 342 (illegal detention) of the IPC, Section 3 and 4 of the SC/ST against the then SHO, Gurinder Singh Bal (now DSP, Bhawanigarh), then ASI Rajvir Singh (now SI, Faridkot), sarpanch Harjit Singh and panch Dhyan Singh.

The woman along with her family members was illegally detained and tortured by the then SHO, Jagraon, City, in 2005 in a case of death of a minor girl under mysterious circumstances.

The deceased’s brother Iqbal Singh said “On July 14, 2005, then SHO of Jagraon, City, along with a police party, illegally detained me, my mother Surinder Kaur, sister Kulwant Kaur at the police station. We were tortured physically as well as mentally. My sister Kulwant, who was given electric shocks by the SHO, had been ill since the day she was tortured.”

“My niece had committed suicide but the police presented it as a murder case and illegally detained our family members to implicate us in a false murder case. I was arrested in the case and sent to jail but the court acquitted me. We had been waiting for justice for the last 16 years and now by registering a case, a way towards justice has begun,” Iqbal asserted.

He said even the National Commission for Scheduled Castes had also ordered action against the guilty policemen but no action was taken for years.

Even Chairperson of the Punjab State Commission for Women Manisha Gulati had also met the victim last year and assured justice by registering a case against the guilty SHO but she, too, failed to provide justice to the victim.

Before breathing her last, my sister’s last words were: I urge God to end my life’s journey on this earth as I am not expecting any justice from the Punjab Police till I am alive. Hope my death will bring justice for me,” Iqbal said.

Universal Human Rights Organisation (UHRO) chairman Satnam Singh Dhaliwal, who had been supporting the family from the day one said, “SHO Gurinder is now DSP, Bhawanigarh, ASI Rajvir is now SI in Kapurthala. We want immediate arrest of the accused else we will start an indefinite protest. Now when the victim, who had been awaiting justice for 16 years, has died, her soul will rest in peace only when the accused cops will go behind the bars,” Dhaliwal added.