The issue of death of seven Sikh prisoners in Pilibhit rocked the Parliament on Monday with the SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra taking up the 26 years old issue. The then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was swift enough to assure the re-investigation in the case.
SAD’s MP from Anandpur Sahib, taking up the case of killings of Sikh prisoners in Pillibhit during zero hour in lok Sabha, referred to the revelations that seven Sikh prisoners were beaten to death in a brutal manner by the jail staff in the presence of jail superintendent Vindhyachal Singh Yadav in November 1994. He added that the case was later quietly closed by the Samajwadi Party Government of Uttar Pradesh, headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, in 2007 but had surfaced only now.
“This ghastly act was committed in the presence of jail superintendent Vindhyachal Singh Yadav, and the complaint was lodged by Giani Tarlok Singh who happened to be the district president of the Samajwadi Party,” he said.
He said that the revelation for first time about the case having been covertly withdrawn had reopened old wounds of the Sikhs and added to the list of examples as to how innocent Sikhs were tortured by the governments.
He pointed out that the court had recently held 47 policemen guilty in the case of killing of 10 Sikh pilgrims in fake encounter in Pilibhit. He was of the view that the jail officials might have been punished had the case not been withdrawn.
Reacting immediately, the former Union Minister and SP supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav assured that his party government in Uttar Pradesh would order re-investigation into the killing of seven Sikh TADA prisoners in Pilibhit jail and the withdrawal of the case in 2007 by the State Government.