Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Anandpur Sahib and Party General Secretary Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra today took up the case of killings of Sikh prisoners in Pillibhit during Zero hour in Lok Sabha. He referred to the revelation that has come up today that seven Sikh prisoners were beaten to death in a brutal manner by the jail staff in the presence of jail superintendent Vindhyachal Singh Yadav in November, 1994 and the case was later quietly closed by the Samajwadi Party government of Uttar Pradesh in 2007 but had surfaced only now.
The chief minister at that time was Mulayam Singh Yadav.Chandumajra said this ghastly act was committed in the presence of jail superintendent Vindhyachal Singh Yadav. The complaint in this case was lodged by Giani Tarlok Singh who happened to be the district president of the Samajwadi Party. The government marked investigation to the CB-CID. It was another SP leader Haroon Ahmad who had come to know about this brutality when he went to the hospital and told Giani Tarlok Singh to lodge FIR in this case. It was in January 2007 that the state government sought withdrawal of the case from the court which was allowed.He said the revelation for first time about the case having been covertly withdrawn had reopened old wounds of the Sikhs and added to the list of examples as to how innocent Sikhs were tortured by the governments.
He pointed out that the court had recently held 47 policemen guilty in the case of killing of 10 Sikh pilgrims in fake encounter in Pilibhit. He was of the view that the jail officials might have been punished had the case not been withdrawn.Former Union Minister and Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav got up immediately and assured that his party government in Uttar Pradesh would order re-investigation into the killing of seven Sikh TADA prisoners in Pilibhit jail and the withdrawal of the case in 2007 by the state government.