The Arrest And Detainment Of U.s. Citizen Bhupinder Singh Cheema And Why It Matters

[thugger]

http://www.sikh24.com/2016/03/25/the-arrest-and-detainment-of-u-s-citizen-bhupinder-singh-cheema-and-why-it-matters/#.VvcdW_krJPY

---

SAN JOSE, California, USA—It was 2:30 AM, the night before the Sarbat Khalsa 2015. Kulwinder Singh and four others had been gambling on the balcony of a house in Batala, Punjab. A gang of six men approached them. According to a first information report (FIR) in Batala police records, one of the men carried a daatr, or a sickle-like tool, probably the length of a sword—sometimes used to harvest crops, sometimes to kill. At least one of the others carried a pistol. Give us everything you have, they said. The man with the daatr swung the blunt end at Kulwinder Singh’s waist. Kulwinder Singh had 25,000 rupees. Some of the other men had cellphones. The gang of six men took the money and the phones and left—five gunshots ringing in their wake.

What happened after is disputed. There are two different versions of the story. The Punjab Police’s version is that after the six men left, they were sheltered by a U.S. citizen named Bhupinder Singh Cheema who was staying in Kala Afghana, a village 20 km away from where the robbery took place. It was Cheema’s first visit to Punjab in three years. This version of the story, recorded in an amended FIR, resulted in Cheema being charged with Section 216 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for “harboring offenders.” This was one of 16 potential criminal violations he was charged with during his visit, one of three different criminal cases he was implicated in, turning what was supposed to be a quick visit to India into a three month stint in jail, costing almost 60,000 dollars, and resulting in him returning home only to realize that he may not be able to return to his village or his land ever again.

In the alternative version of the story, Cheema’s version, he didn’t shelter the robbers. He didn’t even know these men, had never met them in his life. In fact, later that same day he was in village Chabba, near Amritsar, attending the Sarbat Khalsa, a mass congregation of over half a million Sikhs called to assert Sikh sovereignty and determine the future of the Sikh community. Cheema says that this false case, in addition to two others, were planted on him by the Punjab police to harass him because he attended the Sarbat Khalsa and because his family is affiliated with the opposing political party, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Most importantly however, he believes this was done by the Punjab government to send the message to the Sikh diaspora that: if you speak up against us, we will silence you.

If Cheema truly is the prey of the Punjab police in all of this, if he’s truly been skewered by the state, then this fate must be squared with his privileged status as a U.S. citizen. Even in a country with history of committing violence against Sikhs, there’s a certain kind of weight, a dominance, an influence attached to the blue eagled passport that can’t be ignored, isn’t there?

The U.S. Embassy: Facilities or Formalities?

In the year 2014, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs made 8,685 visits to arrested U.S. citizens in prisons around the world. According to the U.S. Department of State, roughly 30 million U.S. citizens travel overseas each year, this means that less than 1% of citizens traveling abroad are arrested and imprisoned. However, this figure does not account for the people who are arrested, but not visited by U.S. embassies, mainly because the U.S. doesn’t know about them.

Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations outlines the rules regarding communication between countries in the case of arrest—the visited country’s authorities are only required to inform the home country, if the arrested citizen requests it. In other words, if you are a foreigner arrested in India, Indian authorities are not required to inform your home country’s consulate, unless you specifically request it. It is often said that the first thing you should do if you are arrested abroad is tell the police to contact your country’s embassy immediately.

Two consular officers from the U.S. Embassy visited Cheema in Gurdaspur Central Jail on December 21, 2015, one month after his arrest. A state department official said, “We were able to visit Mr. Singh in prison on December 21, 2015, and provide all appropriate consular services. He registered no formal complaints of his treatment.” Cheema, however, said he has many complaints.

He said that when the embassy representatives came to visit him, they gave him some pamphlets and a list of attorneys, but couldn’t support him financially or legally in a substantive way. “The embassy doesn’t have facilities, they just have formalities,” Cheema said. “They met me on December 21 and after that they never visited me again. I said many times that I wanted to meet them.” Cheema also asked them if they could get the India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the cases against him, but he never heard back. “I thought the U.S. had a name, but the U.S. didn’t even do an investigation,” he said.

The website of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi states that the embassy cannot “get you out of jail” or “pay your legal fees,” which explains why Cheema felt its limitations so palpably. It also may not be feasible for the U.S. embassy to influence another country to open an investigation on petty crime charges against one individual. However, there maybe some truth to Cheema’s claims that the embassy should have done more.

The embassy is supposed to, “work with local authorities to ensure that your rights under Indian law are fully observed, [including] protesting any mistreatment or abuse.” While Cheema does not claim that he was abused in jail, he is saying that he was jailed on completely false charges—could this be considered mistreatment? A state department official also said that, “Consular officers work to ensure that detained or incarcerated U.S. citizens receive a fair and speedy trial with the benefit of counsel, in accordance with local and international law.”

The officers of the embassy are supposed to “work” with local authorities and the detained citizen during their incarceration, however in Cheema’s case, after they visited him once on December 21st, he claims he never heard from them again. He was not released until over two months later, on February 26th. During those two months, they didn’t communicate with him at all, didn’t visit him again, despite his attempts to contact them. It doesn’t exactly seem likely then, that the embassy could ensure a “fair” or “speedy” trial.

The Charges Against Cheema

One early November morning at around 6 AM, about 30 police officers showed up at Bhupinder Singh Cheema’s house in Kala Afghana, district Gurdaspur. It was November 21, almost one month after he had landed in India and 11 days after he was seen at the Sarbat Khalsa. He had spent the past few days shopping in Amritsar and planting wheat on his farmland. When the police showed up, he had just taken a shower and wasn’t properly dressed. He says the police asked him if he wanted to finish getting ready. He said no, and that he hadn’t done anything. They told him they weren’t sure about that, but he had to come with them. He says he did not resist the arrest because he wasn’t afraid. He knew he was innocent. When Cheema sat in the car, he asked one police officer why they were arresting him. According to Cheema, the officer said he didn’t know and that they had no FIR against him. They had nothing.

Initially, Cheema was not charged with harboring thieves, in fact he was not really charged at all. According to Batala police records, Cheema was arrested under Sections 107, 108, and 151 of India’s Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC). Respectively, these sections allow the police to fine anyone who they think might “disturb the peace,” anyone who is “disseminating seditious matters,” and finally arrest anyone who they think might commit a crime. This means, that in Punjab, you actually don’t even need to commit a crime to be arrested.

Apparently, for Cheema, the only proof of his “criminal activity” thus far, seems to be that he was sighted at the Sarbat Khalsa, sitting on stage cross legged, two to three rows from the front. Gurvinder Singh, another attendee of Sarbat Khalsa, who is a light rail operator in San Jose, saw him there and also said that his name was announced, but that he was not involved as an organizer at all in relation to the event.

But Cheema’s charge sheet tells another story. One paragraph long, it repeats itself multiple times, it states that Cheema was saying, “inciting things to incite people” and “disturbing the peace” by speaking at the Sarbat Khalsa. Apparently, someone who saw Cheema inciting the masses allegedly asked him who he was, and Cheema revealed his identity to the person, who then reported it to Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Harjit Singh of Fatehgarh Churiyan Police Station.

One of the laws Cheema was arrested under, Section 108, was instituted in 1860, during British rule of India. In fact, it was probably initially used to jail freedom fighters who were distributing seditious pamphlets and literature, and making speeches against the British. The irony is that the Punjab government owes its existence to those who fought to free India from the iron shackles of British rule, but it is using the very same iron to shackle its citizens today. One hundred years ago, Ghadris were being arrested under sedition laws, now Sarbat Khalsa participants are.

Pulling Strings for Cheema’s Release, Or Not

When Bhupinder Singh Cheema exited Gurdaspur Central Jail on January 9, 49 days after his initial arrest, his attorney and some members of the press stood waiting. Cheema had finally been granted bail for his initial arrest for “disturbing the peace” following Sarbat Khalsa. He said that the second he stepped out, before he had even reached the main entrance gate, the police were waiting for him. They re-arrested him. Allegedly, they told the members of the press to put down their cameras and confiscated some of their cell phones. He said they took him to a private car. There were four people sitting in it and they told him he would have to see the Senior Superintendent of Batala Police (SSP Batala), Harjinder Singh Dhillon. He said they told him that the SSP had already decided by then, to charge him with robbery.

Cheema’s re-arrest was recorded by the CCTV cameras at Gurdaspur Jail. Cheema’s lawyer, Simranjit Singh, requested the camera footage to be presented before the judge in a petition, however, it has not yet been presented. After his re-arrest, Cheema would spend at least 45 more days before being released on bail again, this time without being re-arrested. Following his re-arrest, the police implicated him in a third FIR, which detailed another “disturbing of the peace” incident at Harimandar Sahib, following the Sarbat Khalsa. According to Simranjit Singh, none of the charges against him have yet been dismissed. “I am afraid if I go back they will put more false cases on me,” said Cheema, “There’s no freedom there. You can’t speak the truth.”

While Cheema was being carted around to different police stations, listening to the stories of the incarcerated men in his jail locked up for 16 hours a day, many of his friends were trying desperately to help him get out. They were pulling strings in their personal networks, emailing political officials when they could, writing press releases. Gurinder Dhillon, a friend of Cheema’s who works in business management at a Silicon Valley tech company, reached out to the U.S. embassy and to the mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo. In an email dated, January 15, the mayor’s policy advisor, Paul Pereira said he would contact U.S. congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (representing San Jose and surrounding cities), the U.S. Department of State, and Amnesty International about Cheema’s case. On January 12, Mayor Liccardo wrote that he would even be willing to join a protest on behalf of Cheema. The mayor’s office did not respond to further questions regarding whether or not they had followed through with any of their promises.

On September 24, when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to visit San Jose, Mayor Liccardo was reported saying, “We welcome the leader of the biggest democracy on the planet. We are proud to be the location where Modi has chosen to address the community.” Given this support of Modi, how willing would the mayor be to advocate on behalf of Sikh-Americans unjustly detained by the Punjab government? The Mayor’s office did not respond to questions regarding this matter.

As an alternative to local government, another solution to Cheema’s troubles could have come through local gurdwara leaders. After all, if the cases planted on Cheema are truly false, as he claims, then it would seem that political pressure from the government was the reason for his jail time. Perhaps, with pressure in the opposite direction, results could be reversed. Two members of the San Jose Gurdwara Committee, Pritam Singh Grewal and Sarbjot Singh Sawaddi, occupy leadership positions on the Shiromani Akali Dal Badal Party of the U.S., appointed by Deputy Chief MInister, Sukhbir Badal himself. Cheema, who is a registered member of San Jose Gurdwara, has made allegations that they may have had something to do with his arrest, due to tense past relationships with them. When asked whether they had anything to say about this matter, they did not respond.

The Implications: Could this happen to anyone?

Cheema’s story is complex, yet revealing. In a way, it is the story of being abandoned by both of the countries you called home, being denied justice by the supposed “justice system” in what is supposedly the “largest democracy in the world,” being neglected by the government agencies of the “land of the free” as you’re denied freedom—being in a chronic, catatonic state of uncertainty about who you can trust, what can happen to you, and where you can call home. Such stories make you wonder: is Punjab being run by a government, or a gang? Are we in fact minor to America, because we’re a minority?

“This can happen to anyone. This has proven it,” said Gurinder Dhillon. “No one is now safe. Imagine you’re going to Shaheedi Jorh Mela and you sit on a stage and tomorrow you become a target.” Perhaps this is paranoia, fed by a tumultuous recent past of encounters and police murders and sacrilege and corruption, or perhaps it isn’t. Maybe the Punjab government wants the diaspora to think twice about visiting Punjab. Maybe Cheema’s detainment was to set an example, like cutting a finger off of a hostage and mailing it to their family, with a note: if you don’t give us what we want, next time it will be worse. After all, no one will speak up if they’ll be punished by having their tongue cut out.

[thugger]

man y'all gotta read this, stop sleeping on this

[Guest Jacfsing2]

man y'all gotta read this, stop sleeping on this

I read it, I just have nothing to add to this, nor do I have any intention on making this a political discussion. The summary for those who haven't read this is that some U.S. citizen Singh was wrongfully arrested for something about him being in "KALA AFGHNA" (why any Gursikh would be related to Kala Afghna is beyond me), and now he is attempting to ask the government of the United States to assist him in being pardoned. (Which they have wrongfully declined), we read the topic, there just isn't anything to say and I'd rather not judge him on being in "KALA AFGHNA", (I have a negative connotation with the name of that). Seriously just Google it up. If I have nothing positive to say, I'd rather say nothing at all, (I have nothing positive to say about this story, so I'll respectfully not say much about this).

[KhoonKaBadlaKhoon]

I read it, I just have nothing to add to this, nor do I have any intention on making this a political discussion. The summary for those who haven't read this is that some U.S. citizen Singh was wrongfully arrested for something about him being in "KALA AFGHNA" (why any Gursikh would be related to Kala Afghna is beyond me), and now he is attempting to ask the government of the United States to assist him in being pardoned. (Which they have wrongfully declined), we read the topic, there just isn't anything to say and I'd rather not judge him on being in "KALA AFGHNA", (I have a negative connotation with the name of that). Seriously just Google it up. If I have nothing positive to say, I'd rather say nothing at all, (I have nothing positive to say about this story, so I'll respectfully not say much about this).

You do realize its a village in Punjab right? Possibly his native village, you expect him to not go there because of one person who was also born there? And if theyre related, well he cant change that now. Totally irrelevant discussion though.

[lsingh]

This Sikh was arrested because he went to the Sarbat Khalsa.Kala Afghana is a village , it's like saying somebody you did like came from Jalandhar so the whole place is bad. Time to wake , Sikhs being attacked in Nawansher, Ghar Wapsi launched for Sikhs by Hindu Groups. Our guys once agan miss the big picture.