Verdict travesty of justice, says Pilibhit fake encounter victim’s family

Ravi Dhaliwal

Satkoha (Gurdaspur), December 17

Trauma has come back to haunt the family of Harminder Singh Minta following the Allahabad High Court’s decision to commute the sentence of 43 policemen from life imprisonment to seven years of rigorous imprisonment (RI), in what has become to be known as the Pilibhit fake encounter case.

Unending burden

Allahabad High Court’s decision is complete travesty of justice. I thought the HC would uphold the trial court’s order. Till when will we have to bear the burden of seeing the killer cops get off lightly? Swaranjit Kaur, wife of Harminder Singh Minta

On July 12, 1991, Sikh pilgrims were travelling in a luxury bus when several Uttar Pradesh policemen segregated 11 male members, divided them into groups, branded them as Khalistani terrorists, took them to different locations in a jungle and gunned them down.

The incident had triggered a massive row over violations of human rights at national and international levels.

On April 4, 2016, a CBI trial court had found 47 policemen guilty of killing the pilgrims and had sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Allahabad High Court has now commuted the sentence. Four cops died during the trial.

Swaranjit Kaur, wife of Minta, was accompanying her husband that fateful day. She breaks down repeatedly while recalling the “horror of that day”.

Her daughter, Manpreet Kaur, born five months after she lost her father, is working in Dayanand Medical College in Ludhiana after completing her nursing diploma.

Terming the Allahabad court’s decision as “complete travesty of justice”, Swaranjit said, “I thought the High Court would uphold the trial court’s order. Till when will we have to bear the burden of seeing the killer cops walk away lightly?” she asked.

She said, “There is a court superior to the court of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts. At least we hope to get justice, and redemption, there.”

Ajit Singh, father of Minta, can barely stand erect and walks with a shuffle after enduring pain for nearly three decades. “My heart aches when I see my daughter-in-law and granddaughter. The trial court had announced that Rs 14 lakh be paid to the family of each victim. Thirty-one years have already passed and I am still waiting for the day when the money comes,” he said.

Ajit Singh said he was in touch with his lawyers in UP. “We will move the Supreme Court. We have to resist injustice. When injustice becomes a law, resistance becomes a duty,” he remarked.