The Punjab police had patronised “black-cats” who had helped the force to commit atrocities on civilian Sikh population during 1980s-90s. This fact is now well documented in various independent human rights reports and even US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks.
One such cat was Gurmeet Pinky, who was later accommodated in police force itself. Gurmeet Pinky had talked to journalist Kanwar Sandhu and revealed various episode of grave human rights abuses by the police force. The videos of the talk were released by Kanwar Sandhu in 2015.
In 2001 Gurmeet Pinky had killed an innocent youth named Avtar Singh Gola, who had asked for way as Gurmeet Pinky with his police team had blocked the street for drinking liquor. Gurmeet Pinky had influenced the trial of the case multiple times but due to continuous and daring follow up by Avtar Singh’s family and hard work of lawyers, Gurmeet Pinky was convicted in this case. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life but was granted premature release after spending few years in jail. He was even reinstated into police force after his release.
Gurmeet Pinky had got registered a false case against the family members of victim Avtar Singh Gola in 2001. Though the police had field untraced report in this case after a year of registration of the case, the case was reopened in 2016 at the behest of Gurmeet Pinky to harass the victim family and help Gurmeet Pinky take revenge.
All these facts now form part of a judgement by Punjab and Haryana High Court in which the court scrapped the FIR registered against deceased Avtar Singh’s family members and told the police department to take action against cop who had reopened the case at Gurmeet Pinky’s behest.
Sikh Siyasat Editor Parmjeet Singh has talked to senior Advocate R S Bains about the high court judgement, Gurmeet Pinky’s case and issues related to human rights and impunity.