Pilibhit Fake Encounter

In a zeal to get better posts and promotions PAC personnel of Uttar Pradesh constabulary staged a fake encounter of 11 innocent Sikh pilgrims describing them as the khalistani terrorists. It is the same notoriously defamed constabulary which had to its credits the Maliana Muslim Massacre in 1987. Having tested the human blood the rabids were turned into cannibals.

 According to the prosecution, PAC personnel stopped a bus carrying Sikh pilgrims from Punjab state on a pilgrimage on July 12, 1991, in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh.

The PAC personnel separated 11 male passengers, including a child, from the female passengers and killed 10 of them in three different encounters in Bilsanda, Niuria and Pooranpur areas in Pilibhit district, labelling them as terrorists, on the night of July 12-13, 1991.

The 11th person was a child, who could not be traced till date. He too is supposed to had been killed but being an underaged minor couldn't be passed as a Khalistani terrorist so he was made to disappear.

Manjeet Kaur, 71, who lost her 17-year-old son, Talwinder Singh in the staged fake encounter, said: "The court should have remembered that this case was not just about the fake encounters of 11 innocent pilgrims but also about the police atrocities the victims' families went through in their quest for justice. 

"Families were not handed over the bodies of their deceased children as the police had cremated them together in a disrespectful way near Pilibhit Kutchery. My son’s body was never found and police claimed that he was not detained. Later we found out that he was among the 11 killed.” Manjeet said, 

She further added, “After the incident, I was completely numb, sleep-deprived, and spent years in the wilderness. People were scared of helping us... Police used to barge into my house at will... I couldn't send my youngest daughter to school. We had to eventually leave our home and land in UP and go to Punjab. My four children didn't have a childhood, but we were slowly recovering. Thursday's judgment has shaken all of us again.” 

Talwinder Singh, a resident of Nawadia Banki under Banda police limits in Shahjahanpur district, was believed to be among those Sikh pilgrims travelling on a Pilibhit-bound bus when it was stopped by police.

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday convicted 43 policemen for culpable homicide in a case relating to killing of 10 Sikhs in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh in 1991. They were sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment with fine of ₹10,000.

However, the Bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and justice Saroj Yadav set aside the murder conviction given by a lower court. It said there was “no ill-will between the accused and those killed. The accused were public servants and their object was the advancement of public justice”.  

According to the prosecution case, on July 12, 1991, the policemen pulled 10 Sikhs out of a bus, shot them in three separate encounters, and claimed that all were terrorists. 

The men were dragged out and some of them were allegedly gunned down in three separate encounters. Talwinder's father, Malkeet Singh, said, “My son was very spiritual. He used to often travel to villages on religious tours. He had booked a bus for a tour to Sri Huzur Sahib Gurudwara in Nanded (Maharashtra) from UP.” Malkeet added: “Police crossed all limits of cruelty even after the crime. I hardly used to go home as they threatened to frame me in fake cases. They arrested me for no reason but later released me after the matter was raised in court by my counsel. I lived under constant fear. My family was always under surveillance. After struggling for nearly three years, we moved out of UP in 1994 and shifted to Punjab. But, our struggle for justice is still on.”

Hardeep Singh, a farmer, had lost his brother Lakhwinder Singh in that incident. He said, “The cops in Amaria knew my brother well and killed him because he could have turned into a witness (in the case) against them.” Vivek Kumar Rai, who represented the victims, told TOI: “All the families went through similar pain and suffering. In fact, in the case of Malkeet, a CBI probe had established that 11 people were indeed killed. The judicial probe that was carried out on the directions of the apex court had found that the 11th victim was Talwinder Singh, who organised the religious trip and booked the bus. He went missing after police detained him on that fateful night. Talwinder was a minor which is why the cops disposed of his body without autopsy.” The CBI had mentioned the detailed findings in their chargesheet against 57 cops, of which 14 are now dead, and the local court had sentenced the accused to life in jail.

It is not the duty of the police officer to kill the accused merely because he/she is a dreaded criminal. Undoubtedly the police has to arrest the accused and put them on trial,” the court said while announcing conviction of the accused and sentenced them to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment with fine of ₹10,000.

The accused policemen told the court that they acted in self-defence. “When they saw the terrorists come out from the forest area, they challenged them and all of a sudden, the terrorists opened fire and in retaliation and in self-defence, the appellants opened fire and, in that way, 10 terrorists were killed,” the court was told by the counsel of the accused.