2005 torture case: SIT constituted over 'police inaction'

Tribune News Service

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, April 22

The Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission has ordered formation of a three-member special investigation team (SIT) of different districts under the supervision of the Jagraon ADC for probe into the alleged inaction in a police torture case.

FIR filed in December

• An FIR was lodged in December last year against four persons, including two cops, for torturing and illegally confining Kulwant Kaur, her brother Iqbal Singh and mother in 2005
• Victim Kulwant Kaur died on December 10, 2021, after allegedly being bed-ridden due to police torture since 2005
• The case had hit headlines when one of the victims made more than 20,000 RTI applications to gather evidence in the case

Relatives of victim Kulwant Kaur along with activists of the Universal Human Rights Organisation (UHRO) along with Pendu Mazdoor Union have been staging a dharna outside the Jagraon police station for almost a month. Kulwant’s mother Surinder Kaur, 75, who is also sitting on the dharna, penned a letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann in blood, seeking justice in the case.

The order comes after a two-member fact-finding team of the commission found that the police had not taken due action. Team members Gian Chand and Prabhdayal Singh also reported that the local police had wrongly got the inquiry shifted to the Bureau of Investigation stating family members had sought the transfer. However, family members told the team that they never made such a request.

An FIR was lodged in December last year against four persons, including DSP Gurinder Singh Bal and an Inspector, for torturing and illegally confining Kulwant Kaur, her brother Iqbal Singh Rasulpur and mother at the Jagraon city police station in 2005.

The case had hit headlines when Rasulpur had made more than 20,000 RTI applications to gather evidence in the case. DGP, Human Rights Commission, Rajinder Singh (retired) had indicted police officials in the inquiry report submitted in 2015.

Kulwant Kaur died on December 10, 2021, after allegedly being bed-ridden due to police torture since 2005. The police registered an FIR on December 11.

The commission has ordered the Jagraon ADC to submit the action taken report on May 11.

Rasulpur and Satnam Singh Dhaliwal, president of the UHRO, said even though five months had passed since the registration of the FIR, the police had not arrested any accused yet. “First, it took us almost 17 years and more than 20,000 RTI applications for registration of an FIR and now we have been sitting on a dharna for almost a month for the arrest of the accused.”

Rasulpur said the accused police officials had picked him up along with his sister and mother in 2005.

“The police victimised me as I was fighting several cases on behalf of the Universal Human Rights Organisation and the Pendu Mazdoor Union. We were kept in illegal confinement and brutally tortured. My sister was given electric shocks and remained bed-ridden since then. My mother and I also suffered injuries.” said Rasulpur.

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