Who is the Professor Sikhs across the world are hoping will be free next month after 28-years?
Countless Sikhs await an upcoming judicial decision on Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, but who is the respected activist who has been imprisoned for 28-years?
Sikhs across the globe are anxiously awaiting an Indian High Court decision expected to be made within weeks regarding the status of respected Sikh political prisoner Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar.
Countless Sikhs and human rights supporters have followed the case for decades, with it being viewed as one of the more standout examples representative of the typical plight of Sikh activists in Punjab.
So who is Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar?
Professor Bhullar became a popular panthic (Sikh path/community focused) figure in the early 90s, when he was was a chemical engineering professor at Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana.
At the time the Sikh Genocide was at its peak, with thousands of mainly young Sikh men going “missing”, usually after being reported as arrested. Tens of thousands of these men, along with countless women and children too, were murder victims of Indian police carrying out “fake encounter” massacres across Punjab, where officers would either claim to have released someone who then “disappeared”, or fabricate a story where they were forced to kill those they interacted with. Panthic historians of the time estimate anywhere from 50,000-200,000+ Sikhs were killed from 1984-1995 only. As noted by human rights org Ensaaf, killings continued up to at least 2012. Officers guilty of these open-secret massacres are still being prosecuted to this day, although many feel only a handful of those guilty are being held accountable, and only after they have already had decades of freedom after their crimes.
Upon several of his college students going “missing”, Professor Bhullar began speaking out about the atrocities and advocating for justice, leading to him becoming a target for the Indian State. With his speaking out, soon attention turned directly towards the popular panthic academic.
What is Professor Bhullar in prison for?
In 1990, the Punjab Police attempted to connect Professor Bhullar to the assassination of Senior Superintendent Sumedh Saini’s vehicle. No evidence was found to link Bhullar to the case. At the time in Punjab and some would say still to this day, it was common for police to simply find anyone to convict for a major incident to both satisfy public nationalist outcry and also simultaneously eliminate perceived troublemakers like Bhullar, who called out their crimes.
Due to their failure to implicate Professor Bhullar in the crime, the police abducted and killed his father, uncle and friend, and abducted and tortured his mother and cousin.
In 1993 when the Police were looking for him in connection to the bombing of Politician Maninderjeet Bitta’s government convoy, Professor Bhullar sought political asylum in Canada. On his way he was detained in Germany where the German government rejected his asylum application and instead imprisoned him, before deporting him to Delhi in 1995. Human rights groups cited the deportation was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights to appeal the deportation. Shortly after Professor Bhullar was sent away, the High German Court overruled his asylum application rejection.
Upon landing in Delhi in 1995, Bhullar was detained without access to a lawyer and tortured, both violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Bhullar was imprisoned without trial for five years until 2001, and then convicted and sentenced to death. Sikh orgs highlighted several issues which rendered his trial and sentencing as unfair.
An unfair trial
Bhullar’s arrest and conviction are all part of the TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities) Act, used from 1985-1995, which gave police extraordinary powers for arrest and detention. The UN condemned it as “disturbing and completely unacceptable” as it assumed that a person was guilty until proven innocent. It allowed for wide powers to arrest and detain without trial whilst having minimum legal safeguards for fair trial, which is evident in how the case of Professor Bhullar was dealt with.
The direct successor of this act, the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) which is currently active, has been condemned by human rights lawyers and activists in Punjab for the same reasons but is still in use.
The prosecution of Professor Bhullar was a result of an unfair trial. His conviction was based solely on a forced confession. Professor Bhullar was tortured and forced to sign blank papers which a typed confession was later written upon. Confessions are not accepted in court unless they are handwritten or in an audio/visual form, but an exception was made, illegally, in the case of Professor Bhullar.
Despite having five years of Professor Bhullar’s illegal imprisonment to investigate the case, the prosecution was unable to produce any corroborative evidence that implicated him. They produced 133 eyewitnesses, none of whom were able to identify Bhullar as guilty of any offence.
The presiding Judge, Justice M.B. Shah, of the three Judge panel found Bhullar not guilty, stating that “Without there being corroborative evidence… This would not be a fit case for convicting the appellant solely on the basis of so-called confessional statement…”. The other two judges voted for the death sentence, making it the first time in Indian history that the death sentence was given on a split decision.
The fight for release
The Sikh community, both in Punjab and internationally, has been fighting against Professor Bhullar’s imprisonment for decades. However, due to the political nature of his imprisonment, the grassroots consensus on Professor Bhullar’s innocence and on the human rights abuses being committed against him has not yet resulted in his release.
The President of India rejected Professor Bhullar’s clemency petition in May 2011, eight years after the request was filed. During this time, while his mercy plea was being delayed for political reasons, there were worldwide candlelight vigils in 2006 to raise attention to his plight.
In 2013, there was international backlash after a court review upheld Professor Bhullar’s death sentence and his execution seemed imminent. Sikhs across the world called for the Indian government to remove Professor Bhullar from death row immediately and retry his case in proceedings that comply with international fair trial standards. A petition in the UK was signed by 118,000 and the case of Professor Bhullar as well as India’s use of the death penalty was discussed in Parliament.
This resulted in The Supreme Court of India commuting Professor Bhullar’s death sentence to life imprisonment in 2014, the only improvement in his situation to date. This was both on the grounds of an unexplained and inordinate delay of eight years in deciding his mercy petition and because of the mental health of Professor Bhullar.
Professor Bhullar has been receiving treatment for his mental health (schizophrenia) in hospitals during his imprisonment starting some time in the 2000s. This treatment has not been very effective. In 2015 he was transferred from Tihar to Amritsar Jail and was last noted as undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College, Amritsar.
In 2016 Professor Bhullar was released on parole for 21 days and was able to spend time with his family. Whilst some could view this as progress, it was noted by many political commentators as a play for Sikh votes by the in-power Congress Party at the time.
So, what now?
With Sikh groups lobbying for Bhullar’s release among many other political prisoners – including modern example British born Jagtar Singh Johal – , focus has not shifted from his situation for countless human rights supporters.
In 2021, respected human rights Punjab based lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur revealed all legal barriers for Professor Bhullar’s release were now removed and he could be free upon the say-so of Delhi (where Bhullar is imprisoned) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party.
In early 2022 protests were held in Amritsar against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for “adopting dilly-dallying tactics” in signing Professor Bhullar’s premature release order before it could be forwarded onwards for final approval.
The legal hurdles for releasing Professor Bhullar and other Sikh prisoners are sparse but, as is the case with political imprisonment, this does not ensure a speedy release. Professor Bhullar has formally been imprisoned for 28 years now, and a person is entitled to apply for release after completing 20 years of their sentence.
On the 14th of December 2022 the NCT (National Capital Territory) Delhi had a meeting regarding the premature release of Professor Bhullar, and as of the 12th of April 2023 the NCT Delhi and the central government had been unable to come to an outcome. When the matter was up for hearing on the 4th of July, no one from the NCT appeared in Delhi High Court to give an update about the status of the matter and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi issued them a new notice seeking a reply by the 16th of August.
Now, after much delay, on the 18th of October Delhi High Court is set to make their final decision on the premature release of Professor Bhullar, following decades of wrongful imprisonment.
For further insight into Professor Bhullar, check out this breakdown from National Sikh Youth Federation.
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