BJP nationwide basic secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh has sought pressing intervention from the Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) over the alleged custodial torture of a Sikh youth, Mohanjit Singh, and mistreatment of his household by the Punjab Police.
In a letter to NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo on Friday, Chugh alleged that the incident occurred after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann held a “Lok Milni” programme in Sheron village, underneath the Sunam Meeting constituency, on September 2. In accordance with Chugh, Mohanjit Singh had displayed a black flag in protest in opposition to what he described because the state authorities’s failure to curb drug abuse in Punjab.
Chugh alleged that as a substitute of addressing the youth’s grievance, police arrested him and subjected him to custodial torture. Citing Mohanjit Singh’s account, he claimed that the youth was stripped and overwhelmed in custody, had cuts allegedly made on his thighs with a blade, and had salt rubbed into the injuries. He additional alleged that the youth was subjected to repeated electrical shocks.
The BJP chief additionally alleged that police forcibly opened Mohanjit Singh’s “joora” and pulled his hair and beard, describing the act as an assault on his spiritual id. He claimed {that a} DSP-rank officer additionally mistreated and insulted the youth’s aged mom and sister through the interval of custody.
Chugh additional alleged that officers made a video name whereas Mohanjit Singh was being stripped and tortured and displayed his bloodied and injured situation through the name. He mentioned that, if established, the allegation would increase severe questions concerning the involvement of senior officers within the alleged human rights violation.
Chugh urged NHRC to take suo motu cognisance of the matter, represent an unbiased fact-finding staff to go to Sheron village and the involved police station, order registration of an FIR in opposition to the police personnel allegedly accountable, together with the DSP, and guarantee safety and medical help for Mohanjit Singh and his household.
Former Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar additionally condemned the alleged torture of Mohanjit Singh. He mentioned that, in a democracy, Indian residents have a constitutional proper to protest peacefully.
“The Chief Minister has begun to contemplate himself a ruler of the Mughal period and is now trampling upon the democratic rights of the individuals. The desecration of a Sikh youth’s articles of religion is an much more severe offence. This police brutality is harking back to the atrocities dedicated in opposition to Sikhs through the rule of Zakariya Khan,” Jakhar mentioned.
In a message shared on social media concerning the incident, Jakhar wrote: “Anti-Panth Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has now fallen so low as to crush democracy and humanity. Mohanjit Singh, a youth from village Sheron, exercised his elementary proper to protest over a matter of public curiosity, such because the sale of medicine within the space. The truth that the federal government couldn’t tolerate his protest, subjected him to police brutality harking back to Zakariya Khan’s rule, and senior officers watched the torture stay demonstrates the extent to which the Chief Minister, intoxicated with the conceitedness of energy, has begun violating the basic rights of the individuals.”
“Administering electrical shocks to a Gursikh youth, brutally beating him, and desecrating his Kakars have introduced again recollections of the period of the Mughal empire. The Chief Minister ought to keep in mind that energy doesn’t final eternally, however the stain of conceitedness of energy shall be related to him for the remainder of his life,” Jakhar mentioned.
He criticised the Bhagwant Mann authorities, alleging that the incident mirrored an assault on democratic rights. He demanded that the Chief Minister apologise and take motion in opposition to the cops accountable. He additionally appealed to the individuals of Punjab to vote the AAP authorities out of energy within the 2027 Meeting election.
