Shiromani Akali Dal on Wednesday urged the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to institute a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the brutal killing of seven Sikh prisoners in Pilibhit jail of Uttar Pradesh in November 1994.
A party delegation, including party MPs Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Balwinder Singh Bhunder, along with Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK and DSGMC general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and party’s UP unit president Rai Singh, submitted a memorandum to this effect with the Union Minister.
The development assumes significance as the SAD has only recently announced to spread its wings outside Punjab, and contest the UP assembly polls. The politics over the Pilibhit killings issue has also attained political colour in Punjab, ahead 2017 state assembly polls.
Sri Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said that the Union Home Minister, while promising action, has sought detailed report from the UP Governor.
Way back in 1994, seven prisoners were beaten to death by the jail staff while 21 others were injured. The case was withdrawn by the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2007.
Asserting that the macabre killings by reducing the prisoners to pulp was part of some pre-planned, the memorandum stated that 28 TADA prisoners, all Sikhs, lodged in Pilibhit jail were shifted to another barrack on the night intervening November 8 and 9, 1994, legs tied up and they were beaten up brutally by the jail staff.
Six of them died on the spot while one more person succumbed to the injuries in the hospital. Others were severely injured, read the memorandum.
“Nothing could be more ghastly that this action of the jail staff that is reminiscent of the dark ages when there was no rule of law. Nothing can be more shameful that such a gruesome incident in a country that takes pride in being the biggest democracy in the world. Nothing can be more shocking that the quiet withdrawal from the court in 2007 to save the culprits,” it added.
The akali leaders maintained that at the time of this incident, the Chief Minister happened to be Mulayam Singh Yadav. “It was again during his tenure that this case was withdrawn in 2007. Now again when the report has surfaced, it is the Samajwadi Party government with Akhilesh Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, as the Chief Minister,” they said while adding that seeking justice from the SP government would be an exercise in futility.
The party leaders said that it was the considered opinion of the party that the victims can’t get justice without intervention by the Centre and the only remedy was probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into this horrifying tragedy to satisfy the needs of justice and punish the guilty.