Satwant Singh Manak
joined the Punjab Police with dreams of making his community safer.
But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Punjab Police terrorized its
own citizens in the name of fighting an insurgency, committing
systematic and wide scale torture, disappearances, and unlawful
killings. Manak silently witnessed the torture and executions of 15
unarmed individuals at the hands of his fellow police officers. The
last killing he witnessed was of Kulwant Singh, a teenager studying
in 10th grade. This injustice and brutality awakened Manak. He quit
his job and filed a case against his fellow police officers. That
case covers ten of the victims.
His courage came at
a great cost. The police tortured Manak, fatally tortured his
father, and threatened his family, but Manak has continued the fight
for justice for over 20 years. The film follows him as he organizes
the families of the victims to attend a hearing at the Punjab and
Haryana High Court.
Will the court
decide to open an inquiry into the murders of their loved ones? Can
justice be served in the lifetimes of these survivors? The film
examines these questions through interviews with victims’ families,
case advocate R.S. Bains, and human rights activist Mrs. Paramjit
Kaur Khalra. |