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A Rights saga: 8 years, 200
hearings, but innocent
WSN Network
AMRITSAR:
For some, the
fight for human rights becomes a life long story.
Punjab
Human Rights
Organisation (PHRO) chief investigator Sarabjit Singh Verka has
decided to take things to a logical end and has filed a writ
petition seeking a compensation of Rs 50 lakh from the prosecuting
agency in two cases he has been acquitted in. He says he was falsely
accused in both the cases.
Admitting the
petition on Thursday, the court of Civil Judge (Junior Division)
Balwinder Kumar issued notices to the state government (through
Secretary, Home), DGP and the SSP of Amritsar for August 25, 2008.
Belonging to a
riot-victim family that shifted from Bihar to Punjab in the wake of
the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Verka had just completed his B.Com from
the local Khalsa College in 1992 when the CIA staff charged him with
mass murder, bomb blasts and extortion under Sections 307, 148 and
149 of the IPC, the Arms Act, TADA Act, and the Explosives Act.
He was allegedly
kept in illegal custody for 13 days and produced in court only after
a series of letters from his parents. He was finally acquitted after
eight years, during which he had to appear in court 47 times. In
1998, the police booked him yet again, along with seven others, on
the charge of floating a new militant outfit “Tigers of Sikh Land”.
This time he was again kept in illegal custody for nine days.
After securing
bail, he had approached the Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC),
which issued him a clean chit, and also recommended Rs 50,000 as
compensation and appropriate action against the policemen involved.
However, ignoring the PSHRC recommendations, the police produced the
challan in court, following which both Verka and the PSHRC
separately moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Finally after 93
hearings in local courts, 100 in the High Court, and 32 in the PSHRC,
the fast-track court of Additional Sessions Judge Hardyal Singh
acquitted Verka and others on March 1, 2007.
Verka now claims
that due to the false cases, his career was spoiled, he had to spend
hundreds of days in courts over 16 years, and suffered heavy
financial losses. He says the “torture on both the occasions” has
also affected his body for life and he had to undergo the mental
trauma of being “unlawfully handcuffed”. He was also put on the ‘Bad
Character No. 10’ list in violation of norms, and had to approach
the High Court to get off that.
30
April 2008
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