According to Veer Singh’s family, their son was arrested and taken into custody for questioning by Inspector Rajesh Sunehi and 20 others on the afternoon of the 8th. The family claimed that they received no news of his whereabouts until the morning of the 9th when an unknown individual named ‘Mangat Singh’ dropped Veer Singh’s corpse off at the Barnala civil hospital.

 Responding to the family’s allegations that Veer Singh was tortured and killed in police custody, Inspector Sunehi plead ignorance. According to the police, the 17 year old youth was taken to a railway station and released the same night of his arrest and suspicious death.

 The court appointed magistrate, Jaswant Rai has since taken statements from all parties involved and said that appropriate action would be taken once results from the postmortem report are made public.

 The Punjab Police, notorious for it’s human rights violations, was responsible for using brutal methods to crush the Sikh Independence Movement in the 80’s and early 90’s. According to Amnesty International, “thousands of ‘disappearances‘ or extrajudicial executions were allegedly carried out by the police as part of a deliberate policy to eliminate armed opposition groups as well as their supporters.” Despite the end of militancy, extrajudicial executions and disappearances have not stopped in Punjab. The examples of Shaminder Singh Shera and Sohan Singh who were tortured and killed in police custody in 2011 are ample evidence of this fact.

 Reacting to the allegations of custodial murder, Moninder Singh, spokesperson of the CSC, demanded that an independent investigation take place to apprehend Veer Singh’s murderers and punish them accordingly. He went on to say that, “corruption, a lack of accountability, and discriminatory policies and tendencies against minorities breed a culture of impunity within India’s security forces. It is this culture that encourages police officers to torture and kill innocent people.”

source url: http://www.sikhsiyasat.net/?p=2845

Dr. Sen is convicted for Sedition in India and is released on bail by Supreme Court of India. In India Law of Sedition is widely misused, and in Punjab many Sikh leaders are also falsely framed under this colonial law, cases of Sedition against Sikh leader Bhai Daljeet Singh Bittu, Chairman of Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) are recent instances in this regard.

Language: English

Human Rights Lawyer and Senior Advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains, Advocate Anumpam Gupta and Bitta’s Supporter Rajesh Kumar participated in the debate.

Bhai Harpal Singh Cheema and others conveying decisions of Joint Meeting attended by various political, religious, human rights, farmers’, students’ and women’s organizations held at Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, Punjab.

Brief Description: This is recording of Speech of Usha Ramanathan. This speech was made on 10th September 2009 at Law Bhawan, Sector 37C, Chandigarh during a Seminar against death penalty held by Lawyers for Human Rights International (LFHRI).

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿਚ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ: ਇਸ ਤਕਰੀਰ ਵਿਚਲੇ ਵਿਚਾਰ ਸਮਾਜਕ ਕਾਰਕੁਨ ਬੀਬੀ ਊਸ਼ਾ ਰਾਮਨਾਥਨ ਵਲੋਂ ਚੰਡੀਗੜ੍ਹ ਵਿਖੇ ਮਿਤੀ 10 ਸਤੰਬਰ 2009 ਨੂੰ ਕਰਵਾਏ ਗਏ ਇਕ ਸੈਮੀਨਾਰ ਵਿਚ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕੀਤੇ ਗਏ ਸਨ, ਇਹ ਸੈਮੀਨਾਰ ਮਨੁਖੀ ਹਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਜਥੇਬੰਦੀ ਲਾਇਰਸ ਫਾਰ ਹਿਊਮਨ ਰਾਇਟਸ ਵਲੋਂ ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜਾ ਦੇ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਵਿਚ ਕਰਵਾਇਆ ਗਇਆ ਸੀ।

ਊਸ਼ਾ ਰਾਮਨਾਥਨ ਅਨੁਸਾਰ ਕਾਨੂੰਨ ਵਿਚ ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜਾ ਜਾਰੀ ਰਖਣ ਨਾਲ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਧਿਰ ਵਲੋਂ ਕੀਤੇ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਕਤਲੇਆਮ ਨੂੰ ਜਾਇਜ਼ ਸਾਬਿਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਯਤਨ ਕੀਤੇ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ।

Manmohan Singh, Son of Sohan Singh, who resides in Australia talked over Radio Quami Awaaz (Australia). This is recording of that radio talk. Recording Date: March 19, 2011.