Jul
28
Judicial Impunity: Two cops get ten years jail for torture death…
July 28, 2006 | Comments Off on Judicial Impunity: Two cops get ten years jail for torture death…
On July 5th, Jalandhar District and Sessions Judge Karnail Singh sentenced two members of the Punjab Police to 10 years of “rigorous imprisonment” for torturing a Dalit man, known as Satpal, to death. The officers allegedly kept Satpal in illegal custody at the instance of an unidentified Congress leader. Satpal is survived by his wife, Jasbir Kaur.
In a long awaited court hearing, Kaur testified that the police summoned Satpal to the Lohian Police Station on Feb. 5, 2005, where he was “tortured ruthlessly.” They released Satpal the following morning. Kaur attributes this to the fact that Satpal’s condition deteriorated; he died in the hospital later that day.
Following this, the residents of the area gheraoed the police station in the evening on February 6 and pelted stones on it.
Police authorities denied the villagers’ accusations of torture. Intense public pressure finally led to the filing of Satpal’s case.
Judge Singh condemned the actions of the accused cops, a Punjab Police Head and Home Guard constable, respectively. He said that
the police [are] meant for the safety of public, but the accused had taken the law into their hands.
The cops were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment under section 302 of IPC and 6 months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500 or imprisonment for another 15 days under section 342 of IPC.
Given Punjab’s history of condoning police misconduct, this case represents an anamoly. A Judicial Blackout: Judicial Impunity for Disappearances in Punjab, India examines similar cases in which the judiciary ignored police abuses such as faked encounters and disappearances during the police counterinsurgency movement of the 1980s and 1990s. By dismissing petitions based on delays or evidence manipulated by police, the courts reinforced impunity for police. The state’s advocate generals affirmed that impunity:
Hira Lal Sibbal had served as Advocate General for eleven years and was referred to as a “legend” by High Court justices. [79] However, he refused to believe the extent of the illegal cremations committed by the police in Amritsar and acknowledged by the NHRC. Instead, he referred to reports by human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and HRW, as “all nonsense.”[80]
When it came to the systemic nature of encounters, disappearances and abuse, the Advocate General claimed
“When the police tried to nab those who are not innocent, sometimes in an encounter against some guilty persons, some innocent persons were killed in the crossfire.” [81]
Lal justified police action by touting abuses as an unfortunate side effect to quelling militancy. On this perception, thousands of cases of human right’s abuse continue to be ignored altogether.
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