Punjab’s war on drugs: The living and the dead

He hailed from Noorpur Hakiman, a Moga village long suffering from drug abuse. The village of 1,500 voters has had 98 FIRs under the NDPS Act in five years; Surjeet’s own one-room household has had three cases — against Surjeet, his son Sukhwinder, 18, and his cousin Balkar Kaur.

The family admitted that Surjeet occasionally used drugs but alleged the case against him was false. “He must have become an addict inside jail. Surjeet and I were in jail during the same time and he use to tell me drugs were freely available inside,” said Balkar, now out on bail, as is Sukhwinder.

Surjeet Singh

The family also refused to accept he had committed suicide. “I had met him a few days before he died and he was fine, no sign that he was depressed,” said his wife, Paramjeet Kaur.

She had gone to visit him the day he died too, unaware of what had happened. Word reached her family, who brought her back home.

Jail authorities denied the family’s alllegations. “He came to us only eight days earlier, his bail application had been rejected and the powder recovered from him had tested positive. So he was depressed,” Balkar Singh Bhullar, superintendent of Faridkot jail where Surjeet had been shifted from Moga jail because of lack of space, had told The Indian Express. This was shortly after Surjeet’s death.

[related-post]

Watch Video: What’s making news

Surjeet is survived by his mother besides his wife and two sons.

Shock of arrest, depression and stroke

Sukhpal Singh a.k.a. Pala, 37, was a farmer of Bhaini village in Jalandhar district who died in jail in April 2014, 10 days after he had been picked up in the company of friends wanted for drug peddling. By the account of his wife Sandeep Kaur, Pala himself was neither an addict nor a peddler. “Pala was driving a friend to Jalandhar town and they picked up another person on the way. They stopped at a dhaba, where police arrested the two other men for possession of drugs and Pala because he was with them,” she alleged. She said he went into depression in jail and was quiet even when she and their daughters, 10 and 8, went to meet him. On April 12, 2014, police called the family to say Pala had fainted and then again to say he had suffered a stroke. Taken to Kapurthala Civil Hospital and shifted to Amritsar Medical College, he died on April 13. “Since his death, I have had no source of income. Pala’s mother is supporting us from the UK,” said Sandeep, a matriculate. “Police never told us what exactly happened to Pala and we didn’t even get the postmortem report.”

Harvinder Singh’s mother shows his prescription. (Express Photo: Gurmeet Singh)

Heart patient who needed his medicines

Harvinder Singh a.k.a Bunty, 35, had an enlarged heart that gave him extreme palpitations and severe chest pain. Arrested in September 2014 by Samrala police along with four others for allegedly carrying 75 kg poppy husk, the taxi driver died in March 2015 in Ludhiana Central Jail, his parents doubtful if the medicines they had sent ever reached him.“He was a heart patient since age 8, look at these prescriptions. He didn’t even marry,” said Jaspal Kaur, 54, in her brick home in Rohle village. “He wasn’t supposed to skip medicine a single day. I had to bribe jail staff; Rs 200 for two minutes with my son, Rs 500 for giving him medicines,” said Jeevan Singh, 60. It’s against the rules to give prisoners medicines from outside, he said. He alleged that jail staff who accepted the bribe would say it would take two days for the medicine to reach his son.

FULL COVERAGE : NARCO WAR — An Express investigative series on drug problem in Punjab

On March 27, Harvinder’s brother Davinder got a call that his brother was unwell at the civil hospital. “We searched all over but couldn’t find him, until a staff member took us to the mortuary.” The father said, “The postmortem states Harvinder was dead on arrival. He died because they neither gave him medicine nor allowed us to do so.”

Harvinder Singh

Jail superintendent S P Khanna said, “As per a judicial inquiry, heart attack was the cause of death. No foul play has been found… I would request the parents to submit an application with names of policemen who asked for bribe. I will investigate… But it is a baseless allegation.”

‘Tarun was concerned how our sons would feel,’ says Ritu. (express Photo: Anju Agnihotri Chaba)

‘He couldn’t bear the shame’

Tarun Kumar, 45, a daily wager of Bara Pind village in Jalandhar, was picked up from his house on the evening of April 17, 2014. On April 18 a case was registered against him under the NDPS Act on account of the alleged recovery of 330 grams powdered drugs. On May 19, he died in Kapurthala Modern Jail, having reportedly committed suicide. Jail officials told the family he was a drug addict and could not endure the withdrawal symptoms. “He could not bear the shame and torture,” said his wife Ritu Sharma, 45. “Whenever I met him in jail, he complained about torture and said he was deeply concerned about how our two sons would feel about him once they grew up. Do police feel responsible in any way for the men they pick up, or do they pick them up just to kill them?”

The then jail superintendent, Paramjit Singh, said that the day he died, Tarun had attended a court hearing and met his family. He said jail staff had told him Tarun committed suicide because “his family was worried about him”. Tarun’s family lives in a small house and has been borrowing from relatives to survive.

Kamaljit’s wife

Healthy when arrested, he was dead in a month

Kamaljit, 48, a tea-seller, died on December 26, 2014, having been arrested on November 8 by Model Town police alleged with 25.50 kg poppy husk in a Maruti car. “We have never seen our father with any drugs, though he drank,” said his son Amandeep. “He was well when arrested but after landing in jail he developed severe skin problem and started urinating blood. He was referred to PGI and we had him taken there. Initially no bed was available there and when his condition got worse we had him admitted and he died a one week later.” Amandeep and his mother live in a small rented house in Piplawala village, Hishiyarpur. “People told us to file a case but we do not have the money,” said Mamata, Kamaljit’s wife.

Sukhdeep Singh’s parents and brother. (Express Photo: Rana Simranjit Singh)

‘He just didn’t wake up’

Sukhdeep Singh, 21 when arrested in 2013 allegedly with heroin worth Rs 75 crore, ran away after six months and surrendered in court after four more months. Police charged him with further cases of drug smuggling. On January 11, 2015, he was found dead in Gurdaspur jail. “We don’t know how he died. He was either beaten up or poisoned,” his father Kuldeep Singh, who drives a truck, said at his home in Pakhiwa, Gurdaspur. “We were told he just did not wake up. How is it possible? If he died of an overdose, his death would prove drugs are smuggled inside jails.” He does not deny his son kept “bad company” but insists he wasn’t a smuggler. “I had stopped him and he started accompanying me on my truck. But then some criminal elements lured him again. But he was not a drug smuggler,” Kuldeep said. “He was just a child, look at his pictures. He had not even grown a beard.”

How could Gopi have been a drug addict, asks mother. (Express Photo: Anju Agnihotri Chaba)

Strong worker ‘fell ill’ and died

Gurpreet Singh Gopi, 27, used to carry heavy loads on his back in the forging factory where he worked. “He was so strong, how could he have been a drug addict?” his mother Balwinder Kaur said at her home in Mahla village, Jalandhar. Arrested on June 21, 2014, he died on July 3. “We were asked to go to Phagwara Civil Hospital and told he had fallen ill while eating. His body had turned blue,” Balwinder said. “When police barged in early in the morning and took him away, he was half-asleep and could not make out what was happening.” Phagwara’s then DSP, Jasvir Singh Rai, told The Indian Express Gopi had complained about restlessness and died in hospital. According to police, Gopi was a peddler and arrested with 6 gm heroin from another village, Narangshahpur. Gopi’s sister Manjit said the arrest was part of an anti-drugs crackdown during which police picked up youths from several places.

Mandeep, Dharam Singh’s wife, travels to the fields, having taken up working after his death. (Express Photo: Gurmeet Singh)

‘He was so strong, how could he have killed himself?’

Dharam Singh, 43, was booked with six others by Baghapurana police in May 2015 for allegedly buying and selling poppy husk, heroin and smack. He died in Faridkot Modern Jail in September. The family of the farmer said police had told them he had been depressed and committed suicide. His wife Mandeep Kaur refuses to accept it. “He was a strong man and aware of the fact that our two sons and daughter are dependent on him. Under no circumstances can I accept that my husband committed suicide,” said Mandeep, 40.

Dharam Singh

She described how the news reached them. “My brother-in-law got a call from jail that Dharam Singh was unwell. For hours, no one at the hospital told us where he was. Only when we agitated did they show us the body,” said Mandeep, who now works in the fields. “Even the postmortem report said that there was not even a single mark on his neck to prove he had hanged himself.” A villager said Dharam Singh had sought to contest sarpanch polls on an Akali Dal ticket but villagers had blocked him because of the drug cases he faced. The villager added Dharam Singh had looked healthy; Mandeep admitted he had suffered from hypertension.

Family of Kulwinder Singh in their Gurdaspur village. (Express Photo: Rana Simranjit Singh)

‘We were so happy… then cops came’

Kulwinder Singh was six foot, healthy and a spare parts dealer well known in Gurdaspur’s Hardo Bathwal village for his ability to fix malfunctioning electrical and electronic items. Retired armyman Baldev Singh, for example, remembers how Kulwinder fixed his clock after professional mechanics had declared it beyond repair. On June 11, 2014, four days after being arrested allegedly with 1.5 kg poppy husk, Kulwinder was found hanging from the bathroom door in Gurdaspur Central Jail. The village panchyat has since passed a resolution that Kulwinder was falsely implicated. Arrested during a statewide drive against drugs, he had no earlier record of selling drugs. He apparently committed suicide out of shame. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son while his two brothers live next to his house, the three of them sharing five shops.

“We were living such a happy life. Kulwinder was attending to a visitor when police came and told the visitor to leave and arrested Kulwinder. He was sent to judicial remand in no time. Four days later, we were told he had committed suicide,” said brother Charan Singh.

Reported by: Kamaljeet Singh Brar, Raakhi Jagga