Jodhpur Jail

Jodhpur Jail, in Rajasthan, is where hundreds of Sikhs arrested in and around Sri Harmandir Sahib in June 1984 were held for years. They are remembered as the Jodhpur detainees. Amnesty International noted that relatives had to travel over 500 km from Punjab to visit them.

Key moments

• 8 June 1984: in the statement of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal that Gurmit Singh reproduces in History of Sikh Struggles, the Army told those held at the troops' headquarters on 8 June that they would be taken to jail; Gurcharan Singh Tohra was taken to Jodhpur and Longowal to Udaipur (vol. III, p. 67).
• 15 January 1985: charges were brought against the 379 Sikhs who remained detained under the National Security Act (NSA). They were to be tried by a special court under the "Terrorist Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1984" for "waging war" against the government. Amnesty International said the Act's special rules, which put the burden of proving innocence on the accused, run against the presumption of innocence (vol. III, pp. 125 to 134).
• Early 1985: after the transfer to Jodhpur a total ban on visits was imposed, apparently on the central government's instructions; on 19 June 1986 the special court judge ruled that such a ban was not lawful (vol. III, p. 140).
• July 1985: the CBI appealed to the Supreme Court against the special court judge's refusal of 8 May 1985 to hide all witnesses' names. Amnesty noted in 1988 that the appeal, pending since 11 July 1985, had stalled the trial (vol. III, pp. 133 to 134).
• 5 March 1987: an additional charge sheet named Gurcharan Singh Tohra, then SGPC president, as main accused, saying he abetted "waging war" by failing to stop unlawful activities in the Golden Temple complex. Released in April 1985 for lack of evidence, he had been arrested again on 2 December 1986 (vol. III, p. 126).
• March 1988: 40 detainees were released, and Amnesty counted 324 still held in four barracks of about 80 each in August 1988. Lawyers of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) who visited the jail in February 1988 noted that 23 detainees were mentally ill.
• March 1989: the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada reported that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had announced he would release all but a few of the remaining Jodhpur detainees.
• April 2017: a column by Tridivesh Singh Maini in Asia Samachar (2020) says an Amritsar sessions court awarded 40 former detainees about Rs 4 lakh each, finding malicious prosecution, illegal detention and maltreatment, and that the Centre appealed in 2018 and later withdrew the appeal.

What it means today. Amnesty International said in 1988 that, on the evidence of relatives, many of the detainees were in the Golden Temple for religious or professional purposes and not in connection with the activities of armed Sikh groups.