Dear Friends

Mehal Kalan is a small town of district Sangrur (Punjab). On 29th July 1997 a seventeen year old student of +2 and daughter of a handicapped teacher was kidnapped gang raped and brutally murdered by the local goons. Inspite of many efforts the local police did not move. Then the people’s anger rose. The Anti Repression Committee which was active in the Mehal Kalan region was reconstituted at this moment in the name of Action Committee Mehal Kalan against the Abduction of student Kiranjit Kaur. Lakhs of people gathered under the leadership of this Action Committee. Who compelled the police to recover the dead body of the girl from the fields of goons after fourteen days i.e. on 11th August 1997. The case was registered and the culprits were arrested. With this the name of committee was changed to Action Committee Mehal Kalan against the abduction / rape / murder of Kiranjit Kaur. Action Committee continued its struggle against this rape / murder. And in August 2001 the Barnala session court sentenced four accused of rape / murder to life imprisonment.

Having influence in the Govt. the goons started to implicate the Action Committee members in false cases. The number of criminal cases registered against these goons family in the past is 29. On 3rd march 2001, the head of this family was attacked and wounded (and later on he died) by those people who were already pinched by their criminal acts. Thinking this to be a golden chance they falsely implicated the three members of the above Action Committee in this murder case. The people protested in large number against this. The police held an inquiry and found the members of this Action Committee to be innocent. After this the Punjab Govt. also declared the Action Committee members innocent and withdrew the case from the court. But the court did not dropped the case.

Now the session court Barnala on 30-3-2005 has sentenced to life imprisonment to these three Action Committee members named Narain Dutt S/o Kidar Nath, Village Hamidi Distt. Sangrur, Manjit Singh S/o Jarnail Singh, Village Dhaner Distt. Sangrur & Prem Kumar S/o Ram Sarup of Barnala. On 28th March they were declared accused and later on 30th March when life imprisonment was awarded then the people including men and women from all walks of life in large number held protest rally and demonstrated through the main Bazar of Barnala and demanded the rejection of the life sentence given to these people’s leaders. On 6 April 2005 the people from all over Punjab gathered in 15000 on the emergency call given by Action Committee and held a big protest rally and demonstration at Mehal Kalan and demanded from the govt. to immediately reject their life sentence and release them. This campaign is further gaining momentum on the Punjab level. The defense of these mass leaders is not merely their individual defense but it is a question of standing by the values of justice. We want your co-operation in this matter.

Convener

Megh Raj Mitter