Terrifying Atrocities of Brutal Police on Innocent People

The police in Punjab often do not surround a person after proving a crime. Instead, they torture the accused and pressure them to confess, saying: “If you want to avoid further torture, admit that you committed this crime.”
Under the name of interrogation in police custody, it begins with threats, intimidation, and verbal abuse, and can escalate to stripping the detainee and subjecting them to humiliating physical torture. The person is already terrified, having been suddenly picked up from an ordinary place—perhaps while buying tea leaves and sugar from the market for the household—when a group of police officers, appearing like messengers of death, seize him, cover his head with a black cloth, and throw him into a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the family suffers separately, anxiously wondering where their son has gone. No police station or officer provides any information. Families remain distressed and helpless. Eventually they discover that their loved one is being brutally tortured in a police facility like a slaughterhouse.
When the family finally manages to approach an officer through some recommendation, the officer often behaves as if he were a king and the parents of the innocent youth were mere insects. To create further fear, the family is told that they cannot meet the detainee because there is “pressure from above.”
Middlemen sometimes appear and say: “Give some money and I guarantee he will be spared from further beating, though a case will still be filed.” The family begins arranging money while, inside the police facility, the young man is hung upside down, stripped naked, and subjected to severe torture.
Physical torture may sometimes seem bearable compared to the mental humiliation inflicted. At times the police pretend to be friendly, calling themselves “Sikh brothers,” and at other times they behave like ruthless tormentors. The victim often wonders whether the families of these officers—wives, parents, and children—know about these acts.
Methods such as electric shocks, beatings with sticks, belts, and other forms of violence are often considered “basic” torture, and many people believe that those who survive only this much have been fortunate. The middlemen then claim that the money paid helped “save” the detainee.
Afterward, a press conference is held where the innocent person is presented wearing a black hood and described as a dangerous conspirator and killer who was arrested just in time. The media then repeatedly portrays him as a criminal.
Years later, after enduring prison, court hearings, and endless legal procedures, he may finally be acquitted—often after four or five years. However, the same media that loudly reported his arrest rarely publishes the news of his acquittal or acknowledges that the charges were false.
Many Sikh youths who were jailed under serious charges such as bomb blasts, murder, or other severe accusations face this reality. Even after being acquitted, society often continues to treat them as dangerous individuals.
Police officers frequently call them or summon them for questioning every month, humiliating them again. Employers also remain fearful of hiring them, worried about possible trouble. In almost every village and city of Punjab, there are countless people who were innocent but were portrayed as violent criminals by police and media. Even after being declared innocent, they continue struggling to rebuild their lives.
No one knows when this dark and painful night will end, or when a new morning will finally arrive.
 

Ranjit Singh
Damdami Taksal
President, Sikh Youth Federation Bhindranwala