Paramjit Singh, here seen with two of his beloved grandchildren, is a 54 year old retired British citizen from Wolverhampton who was arrested in the Punjab region of India in December 2006. He has been charged with possession of explosives, grenades and handguns, with the intention of carrying out terrorist activities to disrupt the recent local elections, a charge which he strenuously denies. Paramjit is currently in the middle of a long and drawn out trial.
In the last week of April 2007, Paramjit has been further charged with a mugging offence, which led to the death of a man.
So, how did this situation arise?
Paramjit travelled to India in October 2006 with his wife and his young niece. He had been travelling backwards and forwards between India and the UK for some time, as he was building a retirement home in his ancestral village of Gakhal. This latest trip had been to purchase building supplies for his new home.
Paramjit is a Sikh, and a vocal critic of the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, and of the human rights abuses that continue in the Punjab to this day.
In October 2003, Paramjit was arrested, on arrival in India, on suspicion of travelling on a false passport. However, after the British government confirmed the authenticity of the passport, Paramjit was cleared of the charges and, since that time, had travelled to India several times without any problems. He therefore had no inkling that his trip in October 2006 would not be equally trouble free.
On 23rd December 2006, Paramjit and two others were arrested and charged with possession of explosives, grenades and handguns, which it was alleged had been found in Paramjit’s car.
24 hours later, the police changed their story and alleged that the cache of weapons had actually been found under a haystack in the village of Gakhal. However, when journalists travelled to Gakhal to gauge the reaction of the villagers to the discovery of a stash of weaponry in their village, they were unable to find a single villager who was aware of the alleged seizure. In fact, the villagers all reported that they had not seen any policemen in Gakhal for over a week.
Paramjit is fortunate to have a very supportive family and, in particular, his daughter, Ravinder, a British lawyer, has been lobbying the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Paramjit’s local MP and MEP, and the British media to keep his case in the spotlight.
Paramjit also has a very competent defence lawyer in India, Kharag Hundal, who has ensured that this case was fast tracked and came to trial within months, rather than years. Mr Hundal himself has been receiving threats from the police, simply for doing his job.
The trial had been proceeding well, albeit slowly, with a judge who appeared to be fair and asking the right questions.
However, on 25th April 2007, on the same day a hearing was scheduled in respect of the charges, where it was anticipated that the prosecution would conclude their case and the case for the defence could begin, Paramjit was taken from Nabhe jail, where he was in custody. Rather than being taken to the hearing, he was taken to the police station and charged with two further offences.
It is now alleged that 54 year old Paramjit was involved in a mugging, on 23rd November 2005, carried out by three “youths”, of approximately 25 years old, which led to a man’s death.
As a result of these further charges, the hearing into the original charges could not and did not take place, and therefore the trial has been derailed.
Fair Trials Abroad’s concerns
- The case against Paramjit in relation to the cache of weapons is so flawed as to be unsustainable. There is no evidence that we are aware of linking him to any of the weaponry that was allegedly seized and we understand that, as the trial has progressed, the police have been made to look increasingly foolish.
- Following Paramjit’s initial arrest, he was severely beaten and tortured by the police in order to try and force him to sign a confession. Paramjit’s lawyer made representations to the judge regarding this torture and daily medicals were ordered in order to ensure the torture did not continue.However, since his further arrest on 25th April 2007, we understand that Paramjit has been severely beaten again and forced to sign several blank “confessions”. The police have also threatened doctors at the hospital where Paramjit is examined daily, telling them that they would be killed if they mentioned any injuries in their reports to the courts.
- In relation to the mugging charge, Paramjit is a 54 year old man, who would have been 52 at the time of the alleged offence, therefore hardly a “youth of approximately 25”. More importantly, Paramjit was in fact, in Britain at the time the mugging took place, a fact that could be easily verified by his passport, of which the Indian police holds a copy
It appears that the mugging charge was just an excuse to put further pressure on Paramjit and that the police action is clearly driven by a political agenda. He has been told by the interrogating officers that the will receive immunity and allowed to leave, if he confesses to being paid by members of the opposition party to assassinate the Chief Minister of Punjab.
At a court hearing on 1 May 2007 the judge fortunately ordered judicial remand and Paramjit was returned to Nabhe jail, where the police cannot torture him any further.