Why the film ‘Punjab ’95’ hasn’t seen the light of day

Honey Trehan’s Punjab ’95 is a gripping, disturbing and eye-opening exploration of the consequences of untrammelled power.

The Punjab-Hindi film revisits the disappearances, extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions attributed to security forces battling Khalistani separatists in the 1980s and 1990s. The unflinching dramatisation of this well-documented period in recent Indian history has put Punjab ’95 in the crosshairs of the Central Board of Film Certification.

Originally titled Ghalughara (Massacre), Punjab ’95 focuses on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was abducted in September 1995 in the midst of an investigation he was conducting into police brutality. Khalra’s wife, Paramjit Kaur, alleged that a Punjab police unit held Khalra without charges and killed him in October 1995.

In 2005, six Punjab police officials were convicted for the murder. Two were given life imprisonment, while four were sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted one official but enhanced the sentence of the remaining officers to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court in 2011 upheld these sentences.

Human rights groups have pointed out that Khalra was among the more high-profile victims of a counterinsurgency policy that indiscriminately targetted innocent civilians while claiming to curb terrorism. Independent investigations have shown that the state and central governments of the time gave the Punjab police unchecked...

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