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This is a ‘before and after ‘ picture of Baaz Singh. That is to say Baaz Singh BEFORE he was falsely imprisoned for the best part of 20 years and AFTER he has now come home, on parole leave. The picture speaks a thousand words and shows a man who has not only been robbed of his youth, but how the rigors of prison life have turned him into a ‘bag of bones’. Twenty years ago, Baaz Singh was a happy, healthy, tall and strong man living in the village of Ratta Khera near Mukatsar. But in the dark days of the 1990’s, the Punjab Police were hunting down innocent, young Sikh men in their greed for the rewards and promotions promised by high ranking officials, as the price placed on the head of “each Sikh”. In 1990, the police registered a case against Baaz Singh for alleged connections with the freedom movement - making him a wanted man. Knowing that if the Police caught him, at best he would be tortured and thrown into prison for a long time or at worst, he would be tortured and then killed in a fake encounter, Baaz Singh went into hiding. The Police came to his family home to arrest him several times but he managed to evade them. In 1993, after three years on the run and the continued harassment of his family, Baaz Singh eventually took the decision to hand himself into the Police. He was then framed in a number of cases and sent to Amritsar Central Jail. After about 8 months, Ropar Police demanded that Baaz Singh be handed over to them in connection with another case. Therefore, in November 1993 he was sent to Police custody, which in India means you are taken ‘under the radar’ and it is usually within this time frame that the Police use torture techniques to get a confession for whatever crime they are trying to set you up with. Later in that same year, Ropar Police sent a message back to his family that Baaz Singh had escaped from custody and died when he fell into a river and drowned. This brought great pain to his already distressed family, but then some months later Baaz Singh actually returned home after the Police had done their worst to him. A period of four years passed, but Baaz Singh’s story was about to take another twist. In 1997 Malout Police came to arrest Baaz Singh from his home and charged him under the Indian Penal Code Section 302 for murder, Section 307 for attempted murder and Section 324 for possession of dangerous weapons. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by Faridkot Sessions Court in 2000 and was sent to Amritsar Central Jail. Although few people know or have heard of Baaz Singh, he has been in prison continuously since 1997 even though the sentence he was given expired in 2007. For the past seven years Baaz Singh has been lingering behind bars when there is nothing to keep him in jail for a single minute more, but for the fact that his paperwork is tangled in the fraught Indian judicial ‘system’ and has not been completed thus far. The mental anguish of each day spent there being another day of his freedom taken away from him, is etched all over Baaz Singh’s face. Baaz Singh’s impeccable character earned him great respect whilst in prison and he has been appointed gatekeeper in the barracks for the last 13 years. His good conduct means that he has been granted parole on over 20 occasions. On one of these home visits, he managed to take part in his daughters wedding. He also has a son in his late teens – who for most of his life has been denied the pleasure of his fathers love. Baaz Singh yearns to return home to his wife Parmjit Kaur and elderly mother, Parkash Kaur who is in her 70’s, to resume the role of carer and breadwinner. SOPW and our legal team have been working hard on Baaz Singh’s case and all efforts are being undertaken to speed up the relevant paperwork. We are monitoring his case very closely and hope to see it through to its rightful conclusion very soon. Meanwhile, we are providing welfare for his family whose financial standing took a serious hit with no other source of income in the absence of the breadwinner. We provide all the educational fees for his 17 year old son, Jujhar Singh, who is studying in Class 12 to ensure that this family who have faced so many struggles in the past, can see hope and success in the future. Visit our website to make a donation: www.prisonerwelfare.org Or: www.justgiving.com/SOPW Via SMS (£5 or £10) - Text: SOPW13 £10 To: 70070 Via Bank: HSBC, Account Number: 41572733, Sort Code:40-42-13 International IBAN no: GB75MIDL40421341572733 Swift/BIC code: MIDLGB2155M Sikh Organisation For Prisoners Welfare (SOPW)