Facing The Truth

The Jessica Lal murder case provoked a public outcryagainst miscarriage of justice that impelled authorities to reopen the case. Thedistortion in the case was so brazen that even worms turned. Middle classempathy with the murdered victim finally aroused public opinion. But it would befacile to conclude that India is on the way to reform of its criminal justicesystem. This is just the first half step.

A rude reminder of how India compares with the rest of the democratic worldwas provided by the recent death in prison of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.His death was as controversial as his life. His critics complained Milosevic'sdeath cheated justice. His admirers alleged he had been killed to preventembarrassing truths coming out in his trial. The Hague Tribunal's case againsthim was not so open and shut as generally believed. Verified facts differedvastly from earlier propaganda. NATO had claimed that 100, 000 to 500,000Albanian civilians had been massacred by Yugoslav forces. Milosevic got comparedto Hitler and Pol Pot. The vast number of civilians allegedly killed was used tojustify NATO's bombing of Serbia which was legally questionable.

In November 1999 the Hague Tribunal prosecutors revealed to the press thatafter seven months of forensic investigations they had found just 2108 bodies.This smaller number didn't exonerate Milosevic. But it should persuade Indiansto ponder.

In just Amritsar district of Punjab, 2097 civilianswere killed by the Punjab police and secretly cremated. This was done ostensiblyto wipe out terrorism. But many of those cremated and listed as disappeared werefound after investigation to have had no links to terrorism. So was it done forpersonal vendetta, or for extorting money, as claimed by many relatives of thevictims' A recent event revived memories of the Punjab police role which wasswept under the carpet. Those bearing constructive responsibility for policecrimes were hailed as national heroes.

During last month's Budget session of the Punjab assembly a fierce debatetook place after the re-emergence of a so-called slain terrorist. The man deemeddead was enjoying a comfortable life with the connivance of the police. PunjabDGP SS Virk defended the police action "taken in the interest of the countryin general and Punjab in particular." Not surprisingly, former DGP KPS Gillsupported Mr Virk.

The defence put up by Mr Gill and Mr Virk appears exceedingly weak -- in thecontext of gallantry awards and financial rewards collected by police officersresponsible for the "slain" terrorists. Terrorists who are in fact leadingcomfortable lives! Would Mr Virk like to enlighten us also on whether theseawards were in the national interest' Media identified halfa dozen glaring cases of slain terrorists whose comfortable lifestylesembarrass the police.

Justifying the police role, Mr KPS Gill recently wrote to Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh: "Certain practices have emerged and becomeestablished in combating and eradicating terrorism. The use of surrenderedterrorists and the provision of alternative identities to protect them areintegral anti-terrorist and anti-organized crime campaigns across the world."This may well be. But, much earlier, Mr Gill's predecessor, Mr JF Ribeiro, haddisclosed in a press conference that the police had recruited agents toinfiltrate the ranks of the terrorists to gather intelligence. He confessed thatthis had complicated matters because some of them had gone astray. In TheTribune last Sunday week its correspondent Mr Prabhjot Singh quoted Mr Gillto write that "trusted" police officers had built "their own armies ofcats -- of men drawn from the fold of terrorists -- besides a team of ruthlessand tough officers for all anti-terrorist operations in their respective areas".According to The Tribune report, these officers earned the wrath of humanrights organizations and sections of the media for transgressing laws.

Did not this policy create the danger of the police-terrorist nexusdeveloping into an autonomous mafia that could extort money and spread mayhem'And if financial gain accrued from this arrangement, did it not create a strongvested interest among sections of the police to perpetuate terrorism instead ofcombating it' These questions need to be faced squarely in the light of what theJaswant Singh Khalra episode exposed.

Mr Khalra headed the human rights cell of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Hisinvestigations led him to allege in 1994 that security forces had abducted,illegally executed, and secretly cremated thousands of Sikhs in Punjab from 1984to 1994. He exposed over 2,000 such secret cremations in Amritsar district.

After Mr. Khalra made this disclosure through the media he was abducted bythe Punjab police in September 1995. He never resurfaced. Responding to apetition (Paramjit Kaur v. State of Punjab) the Supreme Court in November 1995ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to inquire into Mr Khalra'sabduction and allegations of mass cremations. The CBI report in December 1996confirmed 2,097 illegal mass cremations in Amritsar of which 582 wereidentified, 278 partially identified and the rest unidentified. However theCommittee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP), an apex body ofhuman rights organizations in Punjab with no foreign funding, documented afterextensive research the identities of 1700 police victims, their families and thecircumstances which led to their arrests, custodial deaths and cremations. Manyvictims were innocents with no link to terrorism. In some cases their relativeswere harassed by extortion demands and driven to suicide or insanity.

On December 12, 1996, the Supreme Court said the findings of the CBI inquiryrevealed a "flagrant violation of human rights on a mass scale". The Courtordered the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to adjudicate these masscrimes and "determine all the issues". The NHRC limited its investigation ofillegal cremations to only Amritsar district, ignoring the 16 remainingdistricts in the state. NHRC received 3,500 claims of illegal cremation inAmritsar.

Action taken by NHRC was pitifully inadequate. Instead of investigating thesesecret cremations as murders the Commission focused on the narrow issue ofwhether the victims' bodies were cremated according to police rules! In almostnine years NHRC did not hear testimony in a single case, nor held a singlesecurity official or agency responsible for human rights violations. On November1, 2005 the international Human Rights Watch complained to NHRC over its lapses.The letter said: "The NHRC has earned a well-deserved reputation for taking onpowerful forces in India, which makes the Commission's decisions in the Punjabcases even more puzzling."

Several police officers were charged in the Khalra case. The key accused wasthe Tarn Taran district police chief, Mr Ajit Singh Sandhu. Duringinvestigations Mr Sandhu died under a train on the railway track. The policedescribed it as suicide. The victim's mother expressed surprise that he shouldhave chosen this messy way to commit suicide when he had a weapon in the house.A relative of Shaheed Bhagat Singh gave a sworn affidavit stating that Mr Sandhuhad told him shortly before his death that his seniors were involved and hewould expose them. The media reported Mr Kuldip Singh, a Special Police Officer,alleging that Mr Khalra was kidnapped, tortured to death and his body was throwninto a river at the instance of MrAjit Singh Sandhu and Mr KPS Gill. The truth in this case perhaps will neverbe known.

During the decade when NHRC handled this case Chief Justice JS Verma andChief Justice AS Anand headed the Commission. The Khalra disappearance and themass cremations occurred when Mr KPS Gill was the Punjab DGP. Justice Verma,Justice Anand and Mr Gill are distinguished and respected celebrities. Theyshould ask themselves whether in this case they displayed zero tolerance towardsviolation of law or chose expediency. If India seeks systemic reform in the criminal justice system, its leaders must start speaking the truth regardless of officials getting exposed. Without pain there is seldom cure.

Rajinder Puri can be reached atrajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com