The image of Punjab Police again came under scanner, when in a press conference they claimed to had unearthed a terror plot on the eve of assembly elections with the arrest of three persons namely Paramjit Singh Dhadhi Amolak Singh and Jaswinder Singh. Some of the newspapers of 24th of December, 2006 reported about the arrest of three persons including a British national Paramjit Singh Dhadhi on 23rd of December,2006 and doubted about the story put up by the police. On reading the newspaper Hindustan Times under the heading “3 nabbed, but terror or police plot” and another newspaper Indian Express under the heading, “Villagers cry foul as police goes to town with 3 ultras,11kg RDX”,
A team of Lawyers For Human Rights International under the head of its president Amar Singh Chahal and comprising of Manpreet Singh, Tejinder Singh Sudan, Retinder Singh Sodhi, Gagan Aggarwal, Yadwinder Singh Dhillon, assisted by Sh. K.S. Hundal, District President Jalandhar was formed to investigate the matter. The team held detailed investigation into the circumstances under which the victims were arrested and arms and ammunitions were shown to have recovered from them. During the investigation, the team also visited Jalandhar where the victims were produced before the court for remand purpose and talked to several persons, including Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, former Jathedar of Akal Takhat, villages of the village Gakhal, village-Killi Chahal in Moga, relatives of victims including the daughter of Paramjit Singh Dhadhi.
PARTICULARS OF THE VICTIMS;-
The victim, Paramjit Singh Dhadhi is a British national having passport no. 007460492 and is residing in Woolverhamptom,West Midlands, UK for the last many years. Amolak Singh is from Akhara Village in Jagraon, Punjab and Jaswinder Singh is from village killi Chahal in Moga, Punjab. Both are the relatives of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode. All the three victims are Amritdhari Baptised) Sikhs. (
WITNESSES EXAMINED BY THE TEAM;-
1.Bhai Jasbir singh Rode.
2.Bachittar Singh Sarpanch of village Killi Challan.
3. Resham Singh father of Jaswinder Singh.
4. Mandeep Singh S/o Sh. Gurdev Singh R/o Village Gakhal.
5. Kewal Singh Toor, a member of UK-based Panja Sahib Gurudham Yatra Commeetee.
6. Ravinder Kaur daughter of Paramjit Singh Dhadhi on phone from UK.
and about twenty other witnesses.
FACTS;-
On 23rd of December,2006 Paramjit Singh Dhadhi was traveling with Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, Hardeep Singh and Mahanga Singh in the vehicle of Bhai Rode at Chamkaur sahib, about 20 km from Ropar where they were returning from village- Kandhola after attending a religious function there. Their vehicle was stopped by the Ropar police there and they were taken to the police station and were illegally detained there for about three to four hours. Later on Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, Hardeep Singh Deepa and Mahnga Singh were released and Paramjit Singh Dhadhi were taken to Jalandhar and handed over the Jalandhar police. The house of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode at New Hardyal Nagar was also raided by about 40 policemen on Saturday afternoon and they whisked away Amolak Singh, Jaswinder Singh and the Rode’s official gunman Baljit Singh who was later on released. The arrest of these three victims were seen by several witnesses and as per their version no recovery of any arms and ammunition was effected from the house at the time of their arrest. As per the version of the Rode fron whose vehicle Paramjit Singh Dhadhi was arrested no arms were recovered. It is pertinent to mention here that as per the record earlier also Paramjit Singh Dhadhi was falsly implicated by the PunjabRajasansi, District Amritsar, Punjab under section 419/420 of IPC. He was acquitted by the Magistrate concerned vide judgement dated 26.05.2004.He was also falsly implicated in another casehaving F.I.R. No. 7 dated 21.01.1994 by the Punjab police of police station Division no. 6, Jalandhar, Punjab, under sections 124A, 153A of IPC, section 25 of Arms act and section 4/5 of Explosives Substances Act, and even section 3/4/5 of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act were added. But this case was tried by Sh. Kewal Krishan, the additional Judge (Designated Court), Kapurthala and he was aquitted on 09.08.2004. police in case F.I.R. No. 176 dated 03.10.2003 of police station
After the arrest of all three victims, they were tortured by the police in their custody. Whenever they were taken to the courts at Jalandhar for producing before the Magistrate, they were being handcuffed violating the guide lines of the Supreme Court of India.
POLICE VERSION;-
As per the version of Jalandhar police they had unearthed a terror plot on the eve of the Assembly elections with the arrest of three terrorists and recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition. The police also claimed that they foiled the attempt to revive terrorism. As per the version of S.S.P. in a press conference the said three terrorists were belonging to the newly activated International Sikh Youth Federation (Rode group). He also said that following a tip-off, an operation was launched and Dhadhi was arrested from Ropar and a search then at his farms in Ghakhal Village led to recovery of 6 kg of RDX, two hand grenades, six detonators, seven timer devices, a pistol with two magazines and 50 cartridges, 10 meters of wire, one battery and one walkie-talkie set. He also claimed that the entire consignment was recovered from a wheat straw heap at Dhadhi’s Farm. The S.S.P. also maintained in the press conference that Amolak Singh was arrested from Hardyal Nagar along with 3 kg of RDX, a hand grenade, three detonators, two timer devices, a pistol with two magazines and 50 cartridges and a battery. Similarly Jaswinder Singh was arrested with a consignment of 2 kg of RDX, a hand grenades, two timer devices and two detonators from opposite Taj Fast Food near the resident of former Akal Takhat Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode.
RELATIVE’S / WITNESSES’S VERSION;-
As per the version of the witnesses, Paramjit Singh was arrested from the vehicle of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode along with Hardeep Singh Deepa, Mahanga Singh and Bhai Rode atChamkaur Sahib 20 km from Ropar by the Ropar police. Thereafter they were confined to illegal custody of the Ropar police for about three/four hours. Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, Hardeep Singh Deepa and Mahanga Singh were later on released but Paramjit Singh Dhadhi was handed over to Jalandhar police. As per the version of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, nothing was recovered from their vehicle. The other victims Amolak Singh and Jaswinder Singh were arrested along with Baljit Singh the gunmen of Bhai Rode from the house of Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode in the presence of several witnesses by about 40 policemen. Baljit Singh was released afterward. As per their version of the witnesses no recovery of any arms and ammunition was effected from the house at the time of their arrest. Several villagers of the village Gakhal including the village Sarpanch Surinder Singh says that no police operation was conducted in their village. They falsify the stand taken by the police that large quantiy of the arms and ammunition were recovered from the farm of Paramjit Singh Dhadhi. No relative was allowed to meet the three victims in custody. They were handcuffed when produced before the Magistrate at Jalandhar Courts. The father of the victim Jaswinder Singh told the team that no family member was informed about the arrest of his son. The villagers of village Gakhal even demonstrated against the stand taken by the Punjab police.
ACTION TAKEN BY LFHRI;-
Jalandhar team of LFHRI headed by K.S.Hundal, District President , Jalandhar gave immediate legal aid to the victims and strongly opposed the remand of the victims. On 26.12.2006 a letter was immediately sent to Mr. Michael Arthur KCMG, British High Commission, New Delhi informing about the false implication of Paramjit Singh Dhadhi (UK National) by the president of the body Sh. Amar Singh Chahal
A team of LFHRI was formed to investigate the matter who went to several places including Jalandhar and met the three victims in the court premises.
Providing legal aid to the victims.
FINDINGS:-
Amolak Singh singh and Jaswinder singh were arrested by the police from the house of Jasbir Singh Rode at Hardyal Singh Nagar in the presence of several witnesses falsifying the claims of the Jalandhar police that they were arrested from outside with arms and ammunitions.
In the custody of the police they were striped and tortured which is total violation of human rights of the victims.
At the time of their arrest no arms and ammunition was recovered from them. Even the claim of the police of recovering the huge arms and ammunition from the farm of Mr. DhadhiDhadhi including Sarpanch Surinder Singh. According to them no operation of police was launched at their village and no arms were recovered from their village. was falsified by the villagers of
The farm of Mr. Dhadhi had no such heap of wheat straw. After finding holes in their false story the police is trying to create false evidence even by digging the farm of neibourer of Mr. Dhadhi to show the recovery there which was opposed by the villagers.
The Punjab police have violated the guidelines laid down by Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in D.K. Basu V/s state of West Bengal reported in AIR 1997 Sc 610 by not following
It is a clear cut planted case where two Indian nationals and a British national were falsely implicated.
By falsely implicating the three including British National Paramjit Singh Dhadhi and for not replying satisfactorily to the officials of British Foreign office, the Punjab police has lowered the image of our country before the whole world.
RECOMMENDATION;-
Since it is a case where the story of Police is suffering from many flaws and there are many circumstances and allegations of gross violations of Human rights of the victims pointing a finger of suspicion and acting with malafide intention against the Police officers of Punjab police. The role of S.S.P. Ropar Mr. Kapil Dev, S.S.P. Jalandhar Naunihal Singh, I.G. Hardeep Singh Dhillon, S.P. Opinderjit Singh Ghuman, S.P. City-I Satinder Singh, DSP H.P.S. Khakh, SHO Ashwani Kumar is full of suspicion and shady. It is a fit case where an independent probe by some independent agency should be held, preferably by the C.B.I. and in the meantime, a criminal case should be registered against all the guilty police officials who are involved and responsible for the entire episode. The victims should be released immediately and suitably compensated by the state. To sum up, it’s a clear case of human rights violations by the Punjab police. Lawyers For Human Rights International strongly condemn this act of Punjab Police in falsely implicating three persons including a British National and then trying to scuttle every effort to unearth the truth by cooking up false story, fabricating false evidence.
(AMAR SINGH CHAHAL) (TEJINDER SINGH SUDAN)
PRESIDENT MEMBER
(MANPREET SINGH) (RETINDER SINGH SODHI)
MEMBER MEMBER
(GAGAN AGGARWAL) (YADWINDER SINGH DHILLON)
MEMBER MEMBER