Canada denied visa to Punjab cop,cited ‘crime against humanity’

Khatra had served in Tarn Taran,Mansa and Batala in Amritsar range. The Indian Express had reported in its May 26 edition that several Punjab Police officers including Khatra and Additional D-G (Crime) Rajan Gupta had been denied visas by Canada for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses.

Some other Punjab Police personnel,including Superintendents of Police Devinder Singh and Gurdeep Singh Pannu,and a Head Constable were asked to furnish certificates from the government saying they had not violated human rights,along with a list of all the positions they had held over the past 15 years.

The controversy over Canada refusing visas to Indian police and security forces personnel came to light after it emerged last week that Ottawa had rejected the application of Fateh Singh Pandher,a former constable who retired from the BSF in 2000 and is now in his late sixties,on the grounds of his association with a “notoriously violent paramilitary unit engaged in systematic attacks on civilians”.

It subsequently emerged that Canada had also denied visas to retired and serving personnel of the Intelligence Bureau,and several police officers,all on similar grounds. The Home Ministry has pressed the External Affairs Ministry to take up the issue with Ottawa.

Patiala SSP Khatra received the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry in 1993,and has a clean track record of service. He was denied visas by Canada in 2008 and 2009. On the first occasion,Khatra had wanted to go to Canada on a “personal visit”; on the second occasion,to participate in the golf event of the World Police and Fire Games in British Columbia,scheduled to be held from July 31 to August 9 of that year. He had earlier won the runners-up trophy at the All India Police Golf Tournament.

In a letter to Khatra signed by embassy vice-counsel Sharon Hogan,Canada said,“You are at the very least willfully blind to the crime against humanity committed by the Punjab police in Amritsar district. During the investigation,arrest and interrogation,while your posting,you may have been directly involved or at the very least help the increase the effectiveness of Punjab police in Amritsar district at the time when large number of police forces in the area was involved in commission of crime against humanity.

“Also,the government made little progress in holding hundreds of police and security officials accountable for serious human rights abuses committed during the Punjab counter-insurgency operations despite the presence of a Special Investigating Commission,” the letter added.

Khatra said it was the prerogative of the Canadian government to grant him a visa,but disagreed strongly with the contents of the letter.

“I am proud to have contributed to keeping peace in the region as a part of Punjab Police in that period,and I felt really bad that at a time when the world is fighting terrorism,Canada is targeting us — people who actually fought terrorism,” Khatra said. “There is no case against me,nor have I ever been convicted by any court of law,so how can they make such comments?”