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Anniversary of the abduction of
Jaswant Singh Khalra
Paramjit Kaur
Khalra
We will
continue the struggle for justice until
all families throughout Punjab
receive justice. -
Twelve years
ago, on September 6, 1995, the Punjab Police abducted human rights
activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. The police held Khalra in illegal
detention for almost two months, tortured him, and murdered him in
late October 1995. A year ago today, Jaswant Singh Khalra's widow,
Paramjit Kaur, filed a petition in the High Court calling on the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate and prosecute
former police chief KPS Gill for his direct role in Khalra's murder.
During the trial of Gill's subordinates, and as found in the judge's
decision, direct evidence established that Gill interrogated Khalra
in illegal detention after he had been brutally tortured. The Indian
government has refused to prosecute Gill for his direct and command
role in this gross crime, and continues to thwart any investigation
into the disappearances and killings that Khalra brought to light.
Background
Before he was
killed by Punjab Police in 1995, human rights activist Jaswant Singh
Khalra used municipal records to expose over 6000 extrajudicial
executions and secret cremations by Indian security forces in
Amritsar district, then one of 13 districts in Punjab. His
investigations led India's Supreme Court to find "a flagrant
violation of human rights on a mass scale."
In early 1995,
Jaswant Singh Khalra warned at a press conference that the Punjab
government "was highly mistaken in thinking that by eliminating him"
the issue of mass secret cremations would "be put to an end." He
further stated that he was prepared to die for the cause of justice,
and appealed to the people to hold the police chief KPS Gill
accountable for his murder and the mass cremations in Punjab.
Khalra's murder in October 1995 made the reality of thousands of
extrajudicial executions and secret cremations by the Punjab Police
impossible to deny.
After Khalra's
abduction, the Supreme Court referred the issue of extrajudicial
executions and secret cremations in Punjab
to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In ten years, the
NHRC has limited its task to merely establishing the identity of the
individuals who were secretly cremated in just three crematoria in Amritsar
district--one district of Punjab. It has rejected cases from other
districts and has ignored the intentional violation of the right to
life perpetrated by the security forces. In ten years, it has failed
to investigate a single case and explicitly refuses to identify any
responsible officials. "Jaswant Singh Khalra's mission was to get
justice for all families in Punjab,
not just the families from Amritsar," said
Paramjit Kaur to Ensaaf. "The NHRC's failure to provide justice is
not acceptable. We will continue the struggle until all families
throughout Punjab receive justice."
Case Update
On Friday,
November 18, 2005,
Additional District Judge Bhupinder Singh in Patiala
convicted six Punjab Police officials for the abduction and murder
of Jaswant Singh Khalra. Throughout the trial, police attempted to
derail the trial by destroying evidence, and violently intimidating
and abusing witnesses, including the filing of false cases, illegal
detention, and threats of death. Even the CBI prosecutor worked to
suppress evidence by refusing to call an eyewitness to Khalra's
illegal detention, torture, and murder. Two police officers--Senior
Superintendent of Police Ajit S. Sandhu and Deputy Superintendent of
Police (DSP) Ashok Kumar-- died during the trial, and one police
officer was discharged. The convicted police officers have appealed
the convictions, which have been placed before the bench of Justices
M.S. Gill and A.N. Jindal. Credible reports have emerged that key
convicted officials, such as DSP Jaspal Singh, have broken out of
jail for select periods of time, to stay with their families. On
September 6, 2006, Mrs. Khalra, represented by High Court attorney
Rajvinder Bains, filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High
Court after the CBI refused to investigate and prosecute Gill.
Ensaaf worked with attorney Bains to draft the petition and apply
the international law doctrine of superior responsibility.
This petition
has yet to have a substantive hearing. In addition to Gill, other
officers and individuals have not been charged for their role in
these gross crimes. The judgment by Justice Bhupinder Singh cites
testimony directly implicating DSP Jaspal Singh's bodyguard Arvinder
Singh and Balwinder Singh Ghora. According to an eyewitness, both
individuals beat Khalra and witnessed others shoot or themselves
shot Khalra, and then dumped Khalra's body in Harike Canal.
12 September, 2007
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