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The Punjab Police DGP S.S. Virk wrote a confidential letter to state SSPs in Chandigarh on Aug. 30 to confirm that political alignments and bribes were crippling police operations. DGP Virk’s letter was prompted by a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the Chief Secretary K.R. Lakhanpal, both of whom highlighted serious lapses in the department. The letter asked SSPs to rectify shortcomings immediately.

DGP Virk’s statement alerted the Punjab police force to reports of citizens being implicated in false cases by officials on the basis of political connections and “extraneous reasons to escape the law.” In addition, many of the false accusations had gone through the process of arrest and prosecution. Reports of poor police behavior were based on ground-level information gathered by the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary.

“Cases are registered under political influence or money power in order to intimidate people on he basis of their political alignments”, said the unusually strongly worded two-page letter.

DGP Virk continues this statement with the assertion that
    
“Cases against anti-social elements or guilty persons are not registered under some political or extraneous considerations and no effort is made to give justice to the aggrieved persons. Also proper attention was not being paid to people who come to police stations with genuine grievances.”

Virk gave SSPs a series of corrective steps to address the problems. These include resisting pressure from politicians to register false cases, and reporting such instances to him for the further review of Chief Minister Singh. The police have also been asked to avoid calling women or elderly individuals to police stations unless there is evidence of direct criminal involvement. 

The following incident is representative of continuing abuses by the Punjab police. On Sept. 7th, The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) called for a State Home Department  report on the alleged torture case of a Bathinda woman named Shankuntala. The woman, according to husband Bhagwan, was hospitalized after being stripped and beaten on Aug. 21 by Punjab Police constable Balwinder Kaur, the home guard, and a fellow village woman at the Kotwali police station.

Bhagwan contends that Shankuntala was dragged by her hair and thrown onto the police gypsy by lady constable Balwinder Kaur and two accomplices, who then took her to the Kotwali Station.  

The PSHRC made the complaint through ADGP/IVC-cum-Human Rights, Punjab, Chandigarh, taking a suo moto cognizance of a daily newspaper item depicting atrocities allegedly committed by Punjab Police. Suo moto cognizance indicates that the Commission is acting on behalf of the victim Shankuntala, without direct request of her or her family. Meanwhile, The Bathinda SSP entrusted the enquiry of the issue to the Kotwali station SHO.

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