E-Paper
Cops no less then murderers
Kuldeep Mann, reports how a human rights activist was killed by police on reporting fake encounters. His body was never found.
Jaswant singh khalra was a lawyer and human rights activist. He had collected data that showed the police had cremated 2,097 bodies of people they said had died in encounters. But these encounters were suspected to have been fake.
Fate: The police picked him up in September 1995, tortured him for a month and killed him. His body was never found.
Family: Khalra’s wife Paramjit Kaur has been fighting for justice all these years. Her son is now pursuing an MBA and her daughter is studying electronics.
Case: Paramjit holds former director general of the Punjab police KPS Gill responsible for her husband’s death. Her plea against him is pending in the High Court. The next hearing is on May 10.
But other policemen have been convicted. In November 2005, a special CBI court awarded life terms to two cops and seven years’ imprisonment to four others.
Another cop Ajit Singh Sandhu was also sentenced, but he killed himself. A junior policeman, Kuldip Singh had testified that he had seen Khalra being tortured on several occasions. He also went on record saying that Gill had Khalra tortured in his presence by Sandhu.
