Tattoo case victims not happy by 'soft punishment' to cops

BAGHRIAN (SANGRUR): After the verdict in the infamous Jebkatri tattooing case of 1993, the victims still feel that the court order has been soft on the three convicted police officers.
The CBI court in Patiala has ordered three years of imprisonment to Sukhdev Singh Chhina, superintendent of police (now retired) and Narinder Singh Malhi, sub-inspector (SI) besides awarding sentence of one year to assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Kanwaljit Singh.All the three accused were posted in Amritsar at the time of the crime.
Mohinder Kaur (65), one of the four victims, expressed surprise at the sentence awarded to the indicted police officers. “Is this justice? After 23 years of litigation, the policemen have been given sentence of three years only, while the crime committed by them is rarest of rare.”
The tattoo on Mohinder Kaur’s forehead - “mein jebkatri han (I am a pickpocketer)” - has today diminished but the scar was still visible on seeing closely.
Parameshwari Devi (60), (resident of Chheentawali village), the second victim too had the scar of the same words. She was also dissatisfied with the court verdict. “What is this, only three years of imprisonment, when we had to undergo torture for the last 23 years? Our children were shooed away in school as progeny of jebkatris.”
Mohinder Kaur’s son Pappu (32) was in class 6th when the incident took place. His school mates used to write on a piece of paper, “mein jebkatri da beta han (I am the son of a picpocketer)” and would paste it on his back.
He said that even teachers used to make fun of him. Whenever there was a theft anywhere, the teachers would search his bag. He was now married having three daughters. He was working as a farm labourer.
Mohinder Kaur said that her husband Gurmail Singh died soon after the tattooing incident. He was under stress as to how the debt on the family would be paid.
She claims that she had not been compensated adequately and got the tattoo marks removed from a private doctor Harish Sood of Patiala at her own expense. She had to undergo three surgeries which cost her more than Rs 1 lakh.
But Parmeshwari Devi disclosed that initially the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted all the four victims a compensation of Rs 50,000 each. “This money was not sufficient to meet the plastic surgeons fee,” she said.
Devi said that she was still hounded by the police from various states. Teams from Haryana, Himachal and even Delhi police had registered cases against her terming her as pickpocket and a chain snatcher.
The physical scar of a tattoo had been removed but the social stigma still remained though the new generation was not aware of their past.
Both the victims demanded that the court should also order payment of compensation.
The other two victims Surjit Kaur and Gurdev Kaur from different villages nearby, who also underwent the same ordeal could not be contacted.