Jodhpur detainees who did not go to court will also get relief, says Capt

GIVES ASSURANCE WHILE HANDING OVER CHEQUES OF STATE’S 50% SHARE OF ~4.5CR COMPENSATION TO 40 WHO HAD WON CASE

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday promised compensation to the remaining 325 Jodhpur detainees on a par with that given to 40 after a court verdict. He also promised to persuade the central government to do the same. He gave the assurance while handing over cheques of the state’s 50% share of the approximately Rs 4.5 crore compensation awarded by the Amritsar district court to the 40 detainees who had sought judicial relief.

In all, 365 persons were arrested and detained at a Jodhpur jail after Operation Bluestar to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in 1984; they were eventually released in 1986 and as many as 100 have since died. Of the 40 who had gone to the court, seven passed away in the interim. The CM said those who didn’t go to court were also entitled to compensation, and his government will make the same payment to them too. He expressed the confidence that the Union government — it has appealed against the compensation verdict in the high court — will also agree to his plea to contribute its share to all detainees.

He said his government was prepared to release the full compensation to the 40 detainees but he was then informed by the central government of its decision to release its share too, the chief minister told the detainees who had come to receive the cheques here. “It was a small compensation for the pain they had undergone,” the CM said, assuring the detainees that his government will also look into their demand for jobs for their wards.

Congress MLA from Patti, Harminder Singh Gill, who was among 365 detainees, recalled that it was Amarinder who gave them Rs 1 lakh each in 2006, during his previous tenure. Speaking on the occasion, another of the detainees, Jasbir Singh Ghuman said their acquittal came after a 20-year court battle and then it took them seven years to win the compensation.

KESHAV SINGH/HT Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh with persons who were illegally detained after Operation Bluestar. He gave them cheques of relief money awarded to them by an Amritsar court, in Chandigarh on Thursday.