Dossier on mass murdering #SikhGenocide police officer released

Ensaaf, a US based nonprofit organisation seeking justice for human rights violations in Punjab, has released a dossier on former Punjab Police Officer Sumant Kumar Geol, detailing at least 128 enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions committed under his watch.

Samant Kumar Goel was the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Punjab during the 1980s and 1990s. This is the period in which the Punjab Police became notorious for ‘fake encounters’, when people, mainly young Sikh men, were arrested and never seen again (murdered).

The dossier contains a map which visualises how Goel not only permitted his subordinates and other security forces to commit acts of violence against the residents of his own assigned jurisdictions, whilst also allowing them to travel extraterritorially in their targeting.

Due to Goel’s gusto in taking up the genocidal role, his career advanced under the Indian Government. Up until summer of this year Goel remained in prominent roles within India’s policing departments.

The dossier does not present the full extent of the atrocities carried out under Geol’s command. Any cases that have incomplete incident dates or locations are excluded, as well as any cases of arbitrary detention and torture. In reality, there are many additional cases in which Goel is likely to be guilty, but the denial of the Indian government and their efforts to cover up these human rights abuses silences victims and their families.

The work of Ensaaf is compiled through painstaking village-to-village documentation of evidence across Punjab.

Find the full dossier at https://data.ensaaf.org/official/S0024/detail/.