Punjab Police Officer Admits Killing 83 In Fake Encounters

[lsingh]

The evidence this policeman would get most of the people in power jailed if it went to court both Congress and Akalis. Hence nothing is said in the media.

There is a bit in the Times of India,

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-04/india/40370017_1_fake-encounters-cbi-probe-surjit-singh

Ensaaf cover the incident

http://www.ensaaf.org/multimedia/

[singh135]

Media want to hush this up

[lsingh]

The Policeman has named KPS Gill as amongst those responsible for killing Sikhs. Although this policeman has killed he could bring down the 'big fish' if he is supported.

Cop says he was forced to stage encounters
Tells High Court he is willing to depose against his seniors; submits a list of ‘victims’
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5
The past has come to haunt the Punjab Police. For years, the killing of innocent youths for medals and promotions during the days of militancy was a matter of conjectures and surmises. But a blast from the past has brought the matter under judicial scrutiny.

Sub-Inspector (SI) Surjit Singh today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, claiming he was “compelled by his senior officers to kill youngsters in fake encounters.” He has, among others, named former police chief KPS Gill, in the list of officers involved. He has also given a list of “victims” and made it clear that he is willing to depose against his seniors.

The petition for protection narrates a tale of neglect and unfulfilled promises made to policemen who “fought” militancy. “The men he had served with such devotion and faith are not worth his loyalty and devotion, but a bunch of selfish men out to commit any crime for small benefits and promotions,” his counsel asserted.

Mincing no words, Surjit Singh said “unscrupulous senior officers of the Punjab Police killed innocent citizens in fake encounters by using their juniors for their own promotions and police medals…. The fight was much prolonged due to the atrocities of a group of sadist officers, who delighted themselves with torture and death.”

Implicating his senior, Surjit Singh asserted that he “killed many innocent youngsters in fake encounters under the supervision of Paramjit Singh Gill, the then Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar.”

Surjit Singh insisted that the encounters of known terrorists/ wanted persons were staged too “so that there was no need for collection of evidence to try them in a court of law”.

Confessing his hand in the encounters, Surjit Singh said he showed courage by “participating in major encounters and was much appreciated for his fearless action in combat”.

Giving reasons for his confession, his counsel RS Bains said: “The weight of the crime, which the petitioner has committed and which he has witnessed, always made him sad.

“Remorse has set in to at least make an honest confession to those families whose children he had been instrumental in killing in the mistaken belief that he is doing his duty at the command of senior officers, who knew very well that they are committing crimes for private ends.They used the petitioner due to his immature age…” Also, while Surjit Singh’s juniors were promoted, he was not even regularised as Sub-Inspector. Bains said the High Court in September 2012 had directed the State of Punjab and the Director-General of Police to decide on a representation by Surjit Singh. “When he went to the Tarn Taran SSP, Ranjit Singh Hundal, he was not only denied a hearing but also beaten up threatened with elimination in a fake encounter.”

[ThunderousDominator]

you guys are being seriously naive if you think that he could bring the big fish to justice if he is supported hindustan is not a country of justice and law its a country of barbarians and savages hindustani judges are part of the same evil and corrupt system look at prof bhullars case look at sajjan kumars case

[lsingh]

What has come out with this Policemans statements is that proof now in the India that the Police murdered Sikhs. I thinks its the first time that the pro India paper The Tribune has carried a story like this. Up until now the Indians including many Badal Akalis have said the Police were fighting terrorists. The whole Indian argument that they killed terrorists has fallen apart when their own start to accuse them.

Saying this won't work and putting no alternative does not help much. The Singhs gave their lives they must be helped.

[lsingh]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/editorial-views-on/BarkhaDutt/It-s-a-dirty-business/Article1-1087835.aspx

Its a Dirty Business

In a country that gave (rightly so) even Ajmal Kasab the benefit of due process, the chilling CBI account, if true, of how a 19-year-old young woman was abducted, drugged and killed in a staged shootout that saw 70 bullets pumped into her and three others, should shame us all.

Not because of the gigantic political ramifications of a case which books seven of Gujarat's top police officers and raises se rious questions about the culpability of intelligence officials in what the CBI argues is planted evidence, but because while the BJP and the Congress slug it out, the real revelation of the Ishrat Jahan controversy is India's wider culture of tolerance, even endorsement, of fake 'encounters'.

While Ishrat's case has provoked a high-decibel media focus, this same week a sub-inspector (SI) in Punjab should have made headlines, but didn't. The SI from Tarn Taran - once a minefield of militant activity - suddenly announced that he had eliminated 83 people in encounters, several of which were planned set-ups done on the orders of his superiors. In police folklore though, till Surjit Singh broke his silence (the police argued that he'd had too much to drink when he made the statement), he was somewhat of a local hero. By his own admission, he was promoted on a fast track.

Similarly, Maharashtra's police force spawned a whole generation of 'encounter specialists' who were eulogised and feted for decimating the Mumbai mafia. Hundreds of criminals are said to have been killed in these encounters between 1993 and 2003. The men lauded for the 'clean-up' became the subject of glamorous profiles in mainstream media and romanticised impersonations in Bollywood blockbusters, brandishing their guns happily in a display of flamboyant machismo. It has only been in recent years that controversies and serious allegations of human rights violations have ensnared these policemen, previously treated with unquestioning admiration.

Public opinion, discounting exceptions, seems to lean towards looking the other way, when rules are bent. Drawing-room discussions add on a whole set of ifs and buts to what should be a straightforward moral principle - extra-judicial killings have no place in a civilised democracy. The argument offered by those who seek to rationalise the circumventing of a legal process is almost always that no tears need be shed for those who are terror suspects.

The problem with this ex-post-facto justification is that intelligence inputs have often proven to be grievously wrong in court. The whole process of information gathering, by its very nature - and understandably so - cannot guarantee certitudes and yet must pursue even the hint of a lead. But if seemingly suspicious titbits become the basis for pre-meditated killings, the whole foundation of our judicial system - innocent until proven guilty - gets turned on its head.

Even as we ask how and why Ishrat died and at whose behest, the 'encounter' is being validated by those who claim that suspected terror links were enough of a basis to eliminate her and the three men charged by the IB to be Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. But once again these are allegations mired in controversy and plagued by the absence of certainty. On the one hand you have the Intelligence Bureau - whose own men are now on the mat - placing on record that no less than David Headley knew of Ishrat as a would-be suicide bomber. But you also have the IB's own argument contested fiercely by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who sent a team to interrogate Headley in the US. After initially noting down Headley's reference in their case diaries, the NIA eventually dismissed the comments as "hearsay". The investigative agency made the argument that Headley never had direct contact with Ishrat and his comments were based on second-hand information passed onto him by a Lashkar commander who was also quoting another commander. In any case, Headley's inputs - reliable or not - have come only now. He was not an entity known to anyone in 2004 when the 'encounter' took place.

Of course, a certain amount of opacity has to be wrapped around the intelligence community and how it operates. But enough IB officers I know would argue that inputs are never the same as conclusions. From Malegaon to Mecca Masjid, we have witnessed an alarmingly high number of false cases, foisted on innocent young men, initially charged with having terror links, but later acquitted respectably by the courts. In Hyderabad, 100 young Muslim men were taken into police custody for a blast they had nothing to do with. Even if one argues that mistakes made in intelligence gathering are not mala fide in intention, imagine if any of these young men had been bumped off in a staged killing that was later justified as being an encounter with a suspected terrorist. Tragically, even judicial clean chits don't wipe the slate clean. From Kashmir to Kanpur, more than one young man I've met who has battled a false case has struggled to get his life back on track.

Sometimes a person is deemed suspicious on the basis of her ideology alone. In Jammu and Kashmir, for example, civilian deaths often fail to evoke the wider empathy they should because separatist leanings in the Valley have created a hardening of emotions among those who intensely disagree with the dominant politics in one part of the state.

Yet above and beyond all politics is a universal principle. The loss of human life is always tragic. We are a country that applies the death sentence in the rarest of rare cases. That is the constitutional principle that has defined us for decades. The Constitution must not be abandoned - whether by the BJP or the Congress - to sanctify street executions masquerading as armed encounters.

Barkha Dutt is Group Editor, NDTV

[lsingh]

http://www.thestatesman.net/news/4359-Cop-takes-lid-off-Punjab-s-shame.htmlstatesman news service

Cop Takes the lid off Punjab's Shame

CHANDIGARH, 6 JULY: Even as the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case continues to make headlines, a Punjab Police sub-inspector (SI) has created a stir by claiming he had a role in 83 fake encounters during militancy in the state during the 1990s.

The officer, Mr Surjit Singh, posted in Tarn Taran district, claims to have killed many innocent Sikh youths in these encounters on the directions of senior officers who used their juniors to gain promotions and decorations.

Submitting a list of “victims” and expressing willingness to depose against his seniors, he has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday seeking protection from senior officers who he said are trying to prevent him from making an “honest confession”.

Mr Singh has named former police chief Mr KPS Gill in the list of officers who allegedly “compelled" him to kill youngsters in fake encounters. In his petition, he has listed at least 16 fake encounters in which at least three dozen persons were killed. The case is expected to be heard on 8 July.

Mr Singh's counsel Mr RS Bains said the weight of the crimes, which the petitioner has committed and which he has witnessed, always made him sad.

“Remorse has set in to at least make an honest confession to those families whose children he had been instrumental in killing in the mistaken belief that he is doing his duty at the command of senior officers, who knew very well that they are committing crimes for private ends, " the counsel said.

Mr Singh claims that he joined the state police as constable in 1989 and was asked by senior police officers to kill a Sikh youth who was in police custody. As he carried out this direction, he was soon promoted to the rank of SHO police station Mehta in 1992 even as Mr Singh continues to be a constable in official records till date. He claims to have got directions from top cops to carry out fake encounters.

Mr Singh has now been suspended from service for disciplinary reasons after he allegedly approached the Tarn Taran SSP, Mr Ranjit Singh, to take up the matter with him, in an inebriated condition. Top cops question Mr Singh's claims, pointing out that the encounters cited by him took place over 20 years ago and various inquiries have been conducted regarding them.

[chatanga]

i bet this cop never thought that one day these ssp's will want to kill me, when he was killing sikhs at their behest.

On the one hand i want to say this guy got what he deserves, but on the other, it is good news that a middle-ranking officer has made these claims. It will help in the case against india's human rights abuses.

If badal can give 1 crore to the family of that killer spy sarbjit singh, he should make the same gesture towards these 83 victims families as well.

But i bet he wont.

[Jonny101]

If badal can give 1 crore to the family of that killer spy sarbjit singh, he should make the same gesture towards these 83 victims families as well.

But i bet he wont.

Not just 1 crore, but even the family members of the spy sarbjit singh got well paying jobs which are hard to come by. Surely the relatives of victims of Punjab police violence at the very least deserve this much.

[proud2bejatt]

Are either of you right in the head? No disrespect seriously, asking you're asking the same people who do these encounters up until today to help those they 'encountered'.

Lol,