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Judicial Murder: The Case of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar

by GURMEET KAUR

 

 

As Sikhs all over the world were preparing to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the genocidal attack on Sikh shrines carried out by the Indian Army in June of 1984, they found themselves rudely awoken on the morning of May 26, 2011 with another tragic news.

The Indian media enthusiastically carried news of the Indian President’s go-ahead to the execution of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. The clemency petition filed for Devinderpal Singh's life was inclemently denied.

For readers unfamiliar with the case, Devinderpal Singh Bhullar (also known as Prof. Bhullar) was charged and convicted for a 1993 car bomb blast in New Delhi targeted at the then Youth Congress leader, M.S.Bitta, that had killed 9 other people. Bitta escaped with minor injuiries.  

This is not the first or the last state execution of a Sikh that India will commit. So why is this one important?

Over the years, Devinderpal Singh and his case have become iconic of the ability (or lack thereof) of Sikhs to speak up for their judicial rights in India. Saving him from the death sentence unjustly conferred upon him, especially in this day and age of media-led revolutions, should not have been difficult because there is clearly no case against him.

After all, India prides itself in being the largest democracy in the world. In any civilized country in the world, proof beyond reasonable doubt is necessary to convict a person, especially to send him to the gallows.

Not in India.

Everything about Devinderpal's case is disturbing.

Disturbing, because not only will another judiciary murder happen in India, but it will happen in the name of justice - justice that neither Devinderpal nor his family ever had the right or chance to. Justice that hundreds of thousands of Sikhs have not received in recent memory. 

Disturbing, because there is a criminal named Sumedh Saini, the then Superintendent of Punjab Police, responsible for the abduction, torture and elimination of  Devinderpal’s father, uncle, and friend (and several others) because Saini suspected Devinderpal's involvement in an attack on him. Instead of being charged and tried for his crimes, Saini was promoted to the position of Director-Vigilance, Punjab.

Disturbing, because there are several incarnations of Sumedh Saini who continue to enjoy free license to kill in the name of curbing the Khalistan insurgency and have been given total impunity for their actions - and rewarded with high-profile government posts and honors by both the Congress and Akali governments.

But what is beyond disturbing and unbearable is the helplessness that Sikhs find themselves in every time India hangs one of ours on the noose to make a statement, or kills one in a fake encounter, or worse - when, on the global stage, the crimes against the innocents are justified as curbing terrorism and the perpetrators of the mass killings and disappearances are venerated as the face of anti-terror.

Devinderpal’s case is one where even a layman can see that the death sentence given to him is a travesty of justice, a blatant disregard to human decency.

He was tried by the designated court in Delhi in January of 1995 under TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act) for allegedly participating in the attack on Bitta. After facing six years of trial, he was sentenced to death by the designated judge on Aug 25, 2001.  His sentence was based on a "confession" by Devinderpal purportedly recorded by a Deputy Police Commissioner during the police remand. This "confession" was recanted at the first opportunity by Devinderpal as a confession obtained by coercion and torture.

To begin with, there is nothing right about TADA, under which Devinderpal was tried and convicted and under which the alleged confession was made admissible as an evidence. TADA was repealed in May 1995 (years before the guilty verdict) after immense international pressure from the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, being termed  as ‘draconian’.

Further, Devinderpal's conviction under TADA was wrong on another ground, his alleged crime of conspiring to assassinate Bitta should have been tried on the charge of "attempted murder",  not as an "act of terrorism"  as per definition and scope  of the Act.

None of the 133 eye-witnesses produced by the prosecution identified Devinderpal as being present at the crime scene or planting a bomb in the car. There was no evidence to connect him with the crime, except for the alleged ‘confession’.

A second defendant in the case was acquitted on the same charges, in the same trial, because the only evidence against him was Devinderpal's "confession" - the very same one on the strength of which Devinderpal himself was convicted.  

Furthermore, this ‘confession’ was said to have been recorded on a computer and was never produced in the court.

In the Supreme Court appeal of his case in 2002, the presiding judge on the bench, Justice M.B. Shah acquitted him of all the charges in a dissenting judgment, stating that too much doubt remained on the authenticity of the alleged ‘confession’ to the police.

"It is trite to say that one person alone can ever be held guilty of criminal conspiracy for the simple reason that one cannot conspire with oneself," Shah had ruled.

But the two other judges, Justice B.N. Aggarwal and Justice A. Pasayat,  upheld  the death sentence. The case failed to qualify for capital punishment because of the requirement that the sentence be unanimously hels by all the judges.

Devinderpal became the first person in independent India to be condemned to death on a split verdict by a Supreme Court bench.

Since January 1995, Devinderpal has spent 16 long years in Indian prisons, and since August 2001, the day of his conviction, much of the time has been spent in solitary confinement. Out of the 24 hours of each a day, he has spent 22 hours in his 7 x 9 feet cell in Tihar jail, a torture that has driven him insane. Today he suffers with severe mental and physical ailments.

After dismissal of his curative petition on Dec  19, 2002, the clemency petition was filed on his behalf by his lawyer with the President of India on  January 14, 2003.

After eight long years of sitting on it, it was finally declined on May 25, 2011, and the President of India has given the go-ahead for his execution.

It didn’t matter to the President that the Constitution of India admits a very important fundamental right to everyone, i.e., protection against double jeopardy. One cannot be punished for the same offence twice.  Devinderpal has already undergone a rigorous imprisonment for sixteen years of his life, including ten years in solitary confinement. At this stage, rendering capital punishment would mean awarding death penalty after undergoing life imprisonment.

This degree of punishment is not acceptable in any civilized society in the world today.

Even a layman who is not familiar with intricacies of law will agree that Bhullar should have been a free man today.

But that is not what the Indian media is talking about. Talk shows are debating why was there such a delay in hearing of appeals made by a "deadly terrorist" with alleged links to the Khalistan Liberation Force.  

Not many are talking about the wrongful conviction or that Devinderpal has already served more than a full life-imprisonment term, enduring the entire period in torture. No one is talking about his wife Navneet Kaur, who after only a couple of months of marriage, was isolated from her husband and who still awaits his return. No one is talking about his mother, Upkar Kaur, whose husband, brother and son were cruelly snatched away from her by the state.  And, no one is talking about one man on whose whims all of this befell  on the family -  Sumedh  Saini.

Devinderpal’s lawyer, K.T.S. Tulsi, has not given up hope.  Paramjit Singh of the Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee who has lobbied for Devinderpal so far, providing him with legal aid, has  vowed to keep fighting for his life in spite of the latest setback.  His political clout has helped keep Devinderpal's story in the limelight to date.

But there is another ray of hope, a power that has not been tapped, that lies with the diaspora.

This angle drew some international action but not nearly enough. In December, 1994, Devinderpal - fearing elimination by the police through torture or a fake encounter much like his father, uncle and friend, decided to escape from India. While at Frankfurt airport in Germany, he was taken in custody on suspicion of forged documents and after remaining with German authorities for a month, he was deported to India in January,1995. He was arrested and charged with carrying a false passport.

While he was in police custody, with no access to a lawyer or his relatives, he was forced to make the confession for plotting the attack, which later resulted in his capital punishment.

This deportation was later recognized by a German court ruling as having been made by ‘grave procedural errors’. Now, since Germany should not have extradited or deported someone to his or her native country where they could be subject to a death penalty - Germany and other European countries do not condone capital punishment - upon delivery of the death sentence to Devinderpal, Germany should have intervened and asked for his return, especially in the light of the ‘grave procedural error’ it had committed and admitted.

But that never happened. The reason – a lack of global Sikh leadership which failed to wield an effective international lobby for the cause.

So, in essence, Devinderpal Singh Bhullar will see the gallows because of a ‘grave procedural error’ that was never corrected, a confession extracted under torture as the sole evidence against him, and the belief held by two Indian Supreme Court judges that "proof beyond reasonable doubt" should be a "guideline, not a fetish".

With all the facts laid out before us, the question today is not ‘What is wrong with India?’ but ‘What is wrong with us? ’

Why have the Sikhs worldwide not been able to fight for Devinderpal and many others languishing in Indian jails - some  for more than quarter of a century?

Many organizations have come and withered away, but none have had the longevity and muscle to carry out the vision of creating an international movement that could save Devinderpal and similar innocent victims from the clutches of the draconian Indian "justice" system.

Devinderpal's father who "disappeared" while in police custody, was a Section Officer of the Punjab Audit Department and his mother a Supervisor in the Rural Development Department of Punjab. Devinderpal himself was young Lecturer in the Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana, where he had completed a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990. His maternal uncle, Manjit Singh Sohi, another victim of state murder, and who he lived with for several of his school years, was an officer with the Reserve Bank of India.

If an educated family with such high visibility had to face such grave injustice, one can only imagine the status of thousands of others. Who is even bothering to look at the condition of village youth who were picked up on false allegations and are still languishing in prisons without any convictions or cases against them? Who will give closure to thousands of mothers still awaiting their sons?

Who will prosecute Sumedh Saini for his crimes?

The clock is ticking.  

We need to act now. 

This June of 2011 offers the opportunity for us  to come out of our comfortable cocoons and take wings. Wings, not like an individual butterfly that flutters for a day before disappearing, but like migratory butterflies that reach a destination as a group, albeit living and dying individually.

 

June 8, 2011

 

 

Conversation about this article

1: Gagan (Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.), June 08, 2011, 2:35 PM.

What tangible steps can we take to support monetarily or otherwise? Please provide links/list of actions that we can take.

2: Jaideep Sidhu (Athens, U.S.A.), June 08, 2011, 3:30 PM.

This is very disturbing. It is certainly sad that Devinderpal Singh has been denied justice all along. Is there not a way by which Sikhs can sign a letter addressed to India's Prime Minister and President?

3: A.J. Singh (U.S.A.), June 08, 2011, 3:37 PM.

An online petition has been created for citizens throughout the world to show support for Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. Please visit http://www.petitiononline.com/shrg01/petition.html and sign the petition and help prevent a judicial murder in India.

4: Bibek Singh (Jersey City, U.S.A.), June 08, 2011, 4:18 PM.

I read over the internet that M.S. Bitta filed an RTI application to enquire as to why his security was withdrawn by the Central Government, only two days prior to the relevant car bomb blast.

5: Gobinder Singh (U.S.A.), June 08, 2011, 5:36 PM.

The best approach to help Prof. Devinderpal Singh would be to bring awareness to his case in the global media as well as the Indian media (if there is any left that is honest). The biggest problem with Sikh issues right now is that, apart from splinter Sikh groups and gurdwaras in the West, nobody really pays any attention or gives coverage to their grievances. As a result, even a legitimate demand is brushed aside. We have not learned how to effectively make our voice heard in the global media.

6: Social Media Editor (sikhchic.com), June 08, 2011, 8:12 PM.

sikhchic.com has started a new hashtag, #judicialmurder on Twitter. We will post any related articles with this hashtag. All people highlighting the issue should mark their Twitter posts with #judicialmurder to raise awareness about the issue.

7: N. Singh (Canada), June 08, 2011, 10:00 PM.

It is at moments like this that I have to face my demons, for it is at moments like this that I struggle not to hate ...

8: Sonu Singh (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), June 08, 2011, 10:00 PM.

It seems this 'democracy' called India only seems to understand violence. It won't be long before the late 80's and early 90's are back in Punjab and surrounding areas. Sikhs have been divided since the British invaded India and it seems India has taken a page or two out of their books: divide and conquer. Things aren't going to change unless we all stand together against this fake 'democracy' and have a chat with them in the only language they understand.

9: G. Singh (India), June 09, 2011, 12:45 AM.

Suggested action items: - You can write to Amnesty International and encourage them to take up Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's case (they did take up his case in 2003, so you could ask them to reactivate it). http://www.amnesty.ca/atrisk/index.php/cases. - You can organize your local community to initiate a letter writing campaign to the President of India, requesting her to re-consider the appeal. The mass letter campaign word wide by writing letters to Indian media and Parliamentarians will definitely shake the President's office to reconsider their decision. - Write to Sikh organizations to take up the case. - Write to the local and international media, informing them of this injustice and try to get them to help publicize this case. - If nothing else, you can send this email to your friends who may like to take action in stopping this injustice. Please post this request on social media. Use all methods and tools to stop this injustice.

10: Singh Dhillon (Trondheim, Norway), June 09, 2011, 10:01 AM.

"India will disintegrate into it natural parts, just like the Soviet Union." That will occur if injustice against Sikhs and other minorities won't stop!

11: Harinder (Jalandhar, Punjab ), June 09, 2011, 10:40 AM.

We must see that Sikhs should get justice in India. No stones should be left unturned.

12: Gurmeet Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), June 09, 2011, 11:35 AM.

Although I understand the anti-India sentiments that have been expressed in the comments above, to elicit hate or anger is not the point of this article. The point is to figure out where we stand today, where we should head in terms of wielding an effective influence via media-led campaigns and pressures. There are two petitions out there (see comment #3) and the other one by "Lawyers for Human Rights International" (lfhri.org) but they are both inadequately written. Nonetheless, please support both and bring awareness to this case until a bigger plan is in effect. The best action right now is as suggested by comment #9. Flood the President of India's office with letters and faxes. Demand, not clemency, but Justice. Here are the addresses: http://helpline.rb.nic.in/GrievanceNew.aspx Mail: Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, India 110 004. Telephone: 91-11-23015321, Fax: 91-11-23017290 / 91-11-23017824.

13: Brijinder Singh (New York, U.S.A.), June 09, 2011, 8:28 PM.

This is why I love sikhchic.com. Bravo!

14: B. Kaur (Washington, U.S.A.), June 09, 2011, 8:33 PM.

Everyone should sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/Bhullar/petition-sign.html

15: Robert Emery (Everett, WA, U.S.A.), June 09, 2011, 9:14 PM.

I'm hoping that Amnesty International is in on this horribly unjust case. Does any one know? Give them a call and hopefully they are all over it.

16: Reena Khaneja (London, United Kingdom), June 11, 2011, 7:33 AM.

It is very sad to know that yet again one of us is being made a victim of injustice by the Indian government. I request the worldwide Sikh community to sign this petition, email it to the above addresses (comment # 12) and support Prof. Devinderpal Singh. Please keep us updated with this case, and tell us what we all can do more to save him.

17: Harvinder Singh (San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.), June 11, 2011, 3:49 PM.

I couldn't find Bhullar's case on Amnesty international. Can somebody put the link to it so we can write to them?

18: N. Singh (Canada), June 12, 2011, 1:51 AM.

Here is the Canadian link: http://www.amnesty.ca/media2010.php?DocID=634. You can also find the U.S. link (same article) by typing in "Bhullar" in the search engine. I don`t believe any Sikh organizations have contacted Amnesty at a higher level which we must do. I found an interesting case of a Kashmiri boy who was freed after Amnesty started a twitter campaign to Indian government officials. Well worth looking at and considering as a possible strategy. http://blog.amnestyusa.org/iar/when-a-tweet-can-change-the-world/

19: Hardeep Singh (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), June 12, 2011, 11:47 PM.

One of the noticeable and very critical point to be observed in this case is that Devinderpal Singh Bhullar has been charged, tried and convicted under TADA (Terrorist & Disruptive Activities Prevention Act), which came into affect on 23rd May 1985. This law was renewed in 1989, 1991, 1993 before being allowed to lapse in 1995 due to increasing unpopularity and allegations of widespread abuse. Now the moot point is, can someone be tried under the law which has been repealed by the government, considering it's fallacies? . Now let's read more about TADA. I would request all the readers to do their own research on the Internet or in books. According to Wikipedia definition : The Act's third paragraph gives a very thorough definition of "terrorism": "Whoever with intent to overawe the Government as by law established or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people or to alienate any section of the people or to adversely affect the harmony amongst different sections of the people does any act or thing by using bombs, dynamite or other explosive substances or inflammable substances or lethal weapons or poisons or noxious gases or other chemicals or by any other substances (whether biological or otherwise) of a hazardous nature in such a manner as to cause, or as is likely to cause, death of, or injuries to, any person or persons or loss of, or damage to, or destruction of, property or disruption of any supplies or services essential to the life of the community, or detains any person and threatens to kill or injure such person in order to compel the Government or any other person to do or abstain from doing any act, commits a terrorist act." Reading this definition, word by word, and considering the recent rise of anti-corruption sentiments in India for last 3-4 months, my mind struggles to know, why was Anna Hazarre or baba Ramdev or Binayak Sen or Rahul Gandhi not tried under this law. I am reading this above definition of terrorism, word by word, and it makes me think that aren't the acts of these individuals threatening to the government or meant "to overawe the government" Didn't their acts "disturb the harmony amongst different sections of the people?" Didn't their acts cause any disruption of any supplies or services essential to the life of the community? Don't the acts of Rahul Gandhi, entering into a village where section 144 and other acts ban any public meetings, demand a charge under the TADA Act? His comments that he is ashamed for being an Indian, isn't this anti-national? Isn't the active participation of Binayak Sen , anti-national? So why not TADA for him? Another perspective to the Bhullar case. Dr. Bhullar's alleged act was result of the Punjab insurgency and the political upheaval in Punjab during 1980s. Now the biggest question is who are responsible for the Punjab problem. Recently, Congress-I published their 5 volume set of books about its 125 years of history. The 5th volume gives details about the Punjab problem of the 1980's and guess whom the official book of Congress-I holds accountable for the Punjab problem? There are three names. Any guess? Mrs Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh! Now, should the three be tried and convicted under TADA? Their acts completely meet the definition of the word "terrorism" as defined in TADA.

20: Harinder Singh Saini (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), June 13, 2011, 9:46 PM.

All that is written above is true. We should support this to the inner core of our hearts!

21: Sahib Singh (Fresno, California, U.S.A.), June 16, 2011, 11:20 AM.

Hood article.

22: Gurmeet Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), June 17, 2011, 9:04 AM.

Amnesty International launched an Urgent Action Appeal on June 3, 2011 to write to Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh; the President of India, Pratibha Patil and the Minister of Home Affairs, P Chidambaram. The appeal is available on their website in English and French. Please send it to them es with a copy to your local government officials. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/026/2011/en/0096a886-7571-495d-a6f0-8de6641201c6/asa200262011en.html

23: Ranjit Singh Nagra (Farmington Hills, MI, U.S.A.), June 23, 2011, 5:19 PM.

We should make all efforts to save the life of this innocent professor.

24: Arun (U.S.A.), August 11, 2011, 3:44 PM.

I completely agree with Gurmeet's point of view. Very well said. I shall sign the appeal against Dr. Devinderpal Singh's execution.

25: Amarjit Singh Duggal (Atlanta, Georgia, USA), April 15, 2013, 3:17 PM.

There are thousands of Sumedh Sainis in India who had taken the law in their own hands and destroyed many homes. In those times, even just talking about freedom of the press was illegal. What to talk about human rights. We suffered and suffered and suffered. There was no end to it. And we are still haunted by the torture. Day and night. But what does that mean? If you are in a leadership role you need to understand: "Glory of a community and a quom does not stop at oppression, it begins with it." So what did India gain, you think, by hurting us? What did India gain out of the propaganda? The answer is NOTHING. We still stand tall, our heads high, and will always be heads and shoulders above our oppressors. I am doing exactly the opposite of what they are doing, because I have adopted it as a policy, which they will never understand, because they have not lived through the fire that I have. I have learned out of my torturous years to do the opposite of what they think we will do, that is, react in a negative way! Let them put all the cases on us, and blame us for what we have not done. Let their own secret agents kill people and let them dump cases against the innocent. Let the press be part of this as well, and the politicians drink beer while we die! It will change NOTHING. It will only solidify us! It's a battle of "Decency vs Indecency". I want them to hang Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar (who may or may not be their man, like so many others we know!), hang all the others they want and cook up stories of their fictional involvement, and let Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and all the other murderers who are still alive and on the road, be free. If we are right, one day we will victorious.

26: Charan Singh (Doha, Qatar), April 19, 2013, 2:41 AM.

All of us must stand against injustice by raising our voices and standing as ONE FORCE against all evil designs.

27: Raj  (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), April 21, 2013, 6:43 PM.

He should be spared the capital punishment because he has suffered enough already.

28: Gurmeet Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, USA), January 21, 2014, 9:10 AM.

In a landmark judgement, today, the Supreme Court of India ruled that a death convict must be hanged within 14 days after dismissal of his mercy petition and that a death sentence of a condemned prisoner can be commuted to life imprisonment on the ground of delay on the part of the government in deciding the mercy plea. This means that Prof. Devinderpal Singh's death sentence has now been turned into a life sentence. Since he has already served more than a generally accepted life term (in India it is generally 14 years), there are chances that he may be a free man in the coming years if he has good legal representation.

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