The Global Human Rights Protection Council, Chandigarh, has filed a complaint with the President of India and National Human Rights Commission, about the violation of human rights in the SS Virk case, by Punjab government and police under Section 12 of Protection of Human Rights Act.
Chairman of the council Arvind Thakur and executive member Narinder Mahajan have named Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Director General of Police Punjab NPS Aulakh and Vigilance Director Punjab Sumedh Singh Saini.
In their complaint, Thakur and Mahajan said that the Punjab Police arrested SS Virk from Maharashtra Sadan at New Delhi and was remanded at odd hours by bringing a magistrate to the hospital where he was admitted. “The facts and the circumstances of his arrest indicate that his human rights have been violated,” the petition said.
Thakur in his petition said the arrest of Virk was illegal, as it was the duty of the Punjab Police to inform the Delhi Police, get a DDR recorded and take the local police in confidence before arresting Virk.
The Punjab Police should have come back to the same police station to record the entry of the arrest, but nothing of such sort was done. He further added that at the time of his arrest, the FIR was not registered which clearly violates the guidelines of the Supreme Court regarding arrests and make the allegations clear, that were not complied with.
The petition said, “It was the duty of the police to get a transit remand of Virk at Delhi, however, this was possibly not done because there were no legal papers with the police to get such remand. The police also did not inform his friends, relatives or lawyer about his arrest.”
The petition further said the arrest appears to be a political vendetta of the Chief Minister of Punjab. Virk has been targetted and has been denied his human rights.
The petition said there are corruption cases pending against Sumedh Singh Saini (Director Vigilance Punjab) for acquiring illegal property worth crores with the Central Vigilance Commission, New Delhi, Anti-Corruption Branch of the Prime Minister’s office, the Director of CBI, New Delhi, the Chief Secretary Punjab government and the DGP office Punjab. “No action has been taken against Saini and the complaints have been put in the cold storage so as to save him from prosecution and punishment,” the petition said.
The petitioner requested the Human Rights Commission to depute a special representative to hold an independent inquiry about the violation of human rights in the Virk case and also investigate the circumstances, which led to his arrest.