High Court Issues Notices On Plea For Independent Probe Into Alleged Encounter Killings & Custodial Deaths In Punjab During 1984-1995

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to CBI, Central government, Punjab government and the Director General of Punjab Police on a PIL seeking independent probe into alleged 6,733 encounter killings, custodial death and illegal cremation of dead bodies in Punjab during the period of 1984-1995.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji has posted the matter on May 09.

In 2019, the PIL was filed by an NGO, Punjab Documentation and Advocacy Project (PDAP) stated to be comprised of prominent activists lawyers civil society and affected persons, alleging that thousands of people in Punjab were killed and cremated unidentified under the guise of militancy operations between 1984-1995 in the State.

The plea highlights that the records submitted in the plea are "direct evidence that dead bodies of victims were also brought to these crematoria as unidentified and/or cremated as unclaimed. When compared to evidence of FIR's and evidence of receipt books for the purchase of firewood and cloth for cremation the registers, receipt books and vouchers record the dates of cremations and numbers of bodies brought for cremation match the dates of killings and abductions in large numbers."

Adding that it is well documented that innocent citizens of Punjab were abducted and remain missing and unaccounted for, the plea states that Police has grossly misused the Punjab Police Rules.

The plea also refers to Supreme Court's intervention in the Manipur case of the extra-judicial killings and disappearance of 1528 persons over two decades, to underscore, "crimes such as enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings when carried out in such large numbers are legally defined as "Crimes Against Humanity" which imposes a legal obligation on states to investigate, prosecute and rehabilitate where evidence has come to light even in circumstances where decades have passed."

Furthermore, the plea alleges that in many cases the Municipal Corporations have refused to issue death certificates to the families as they have not been able to prove the deaths of their kin in absence of the dead body.

"The absence of death certificates means that widows are denied government widow pension schemes. The children of the disappeared are not given subsidies in education otherwise available to other orphans. It also means that the victims face considerable hurdles and difficulties in matters of inheritance/succession and employment on compassionate grounds…,” it submits.

In the light of the above, the petition seeks independent investigation into all alleged "enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings in Punjab" and directions to the state to rehabilitate the families of the victim.

Advocate for the petitioners: Senior Advocate R.S. Bains, Advocates Satnam Singh Bains and Neha Sonawane.

Title: Punjab Documentation And Advocate Project (PDAP) & Others v. State of Punjab & Ors.