HC notice to UP over case closure

CHANDIGARH: The Allahabad High Court is awaiting the reply of the Uttar Pradesh government in the custodial deaths of nine Sikh inmates of Pilibhit Jail in 1994. The notice of motion in the case was ordered on July 13.

The court order came in the wake of a fresh plea of Pilibhitbased social activist Harjinder Singh Sekhon who sought reopening of the case closed by the UP government in 2007.

Addressing the media here on Monday, Sekhon accused the UP police of resorting to harassment, saying cops raided his house in Pilibhit in his absence. “Police did not carry any search warrants and ransacked my house in the presence of my family members when I was away,” Sekhon stated.

Sekhon pointed out that as per the CBI-CID inquiry report, 7 of the 28 TADA detainees in Barrack 7 of Pilibhit jail died in police custody on the intervening night of November 7-8 in 1994.

Sekhon was instrumental in fighting the legal case of the fake encounter of 10 Sikhs in which 46 cops were convicted in April this year.

Sekhon had also approached Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to take up the matter with the UP government and also provide security to him.