During the S. A. S. Nagar-Punjab riots, innocent Sikh youth sitting at home were killed in fake police encounters by police officers greedy for promotion, calling them militants. A similar case came to light in a special CBI court in Mohali. Two former police officers were sentenced to life imprisonment in the fake encounter case of Baldev Singh Deba and Kulwant Singh, which took place 32 years ago in 1992 in Amritsar.
32 years ago, Baldev Singh Deba, a resident of village Basarke Bhaini, was detained from his house by a team led by S. I. Mahinder Singh and Harbhajan Singh, S. H. O. Police Station Chheharta. Similarly, Lakhwinder Singh Lakha, a resident of village Sultanwind, was also arrested from his rented house in Preet Nagar, Amritsar on 12 September 1992 by S. I. A team led by Gurbhinder Singh had illegally arrested and killed both of them by falsely implicating them in the case of the then minister’s son and staging a fake police encounter.
After the Supreme Court order regarding the mass cremation of unclaimed bodies by the Punjab Police, the CBI took over the investigation in 1995. The CBI investigated the case and filed a case. 9 police personnel were named as accused in the charge sheet, out of which 5 police personnel (Harbhajan Singh, Mahendra Singh, Purushottam Lal, Mohan Singh and Jassa Singh) have died. While 2 accused Inspector Chaman Lal and DSP SS Sidhu were acquitted by giving them the benefit of doubt. However, at the time of the fake encounter, senior police officers had claimed that both were hardcore militants on whom a reward had been announced. However, in reality, one of them was an army jawan and the other was a 16-year-old minor. A total of 19 people were recorded as witnesses in this case.
Recently, the CBI court had convicted the then SHO Purushottam Singh and the then S.I. Gurbhinder Singh, who were recently sentenced to life imprisonment by the CBI court along with a fine of Rs. 2 lakh. After a struggle of 32 years, the culprits were given due legal punishment and both the deceased Sikh youths and their families got justice from the court. On this occasion, the CBI lawyer Anmol Narang, Advocate Sarabjit Singh Verka, Advocate Pushpinder Singh and Advocate Jagjit Singh, who played an important role in providing justice to the two victim families, were thanked by the family members present.
Family said that justice was incomplete
Baldev Singh’s sister said that we tried a lot but they didn’t even give us the body. They were punished but the Naladas should have been punished too, who took him from the house. They took him down from the roof and said that we have to ask someone’s house, we will leave him for half an hour. They kept beating him and kept him in jail for 8 days and made him an encounter. At that time he was 25 years old. Our house was destroyed. We were three sisters and our only brother. He got married a year ago but then his wife also left.
Lakhwinder Singh’s brother said that at that time his brother was 15-16 years old. He said that they took him from the house. We did not know anything, nor did they give us the body. We came to know from the newspaper. Everyone should have been punished equally. We did not get full justice.”
The victim’s lawyer Jagjit Singh Bajwa said that Baldev Singh, who had just been discharged from the army, was picked up by the police on September 6, 1992 and kept in illegal custody for 8-9 days and then staged an encounter on September 13, 1992. He said, “Lakhwinder Singh was a resident of Sultan Wind but lived naked in a rented house out of fear of the police. From there, the police of Majitha police station picked him up and staged a fake police encounter between the two on September 13, 1992.”
According to the lawyer, “The police had fabricated the story that Baldev Singh was the murderer of the son of an MLA in the then Beant Singh government. When he was being taken to show the recovery after being nominated in this case, unknown militants attacked him.”
According to lawyer Jagjit Singh Bajwa, the entire police story failed in court and this encounter was found to be false. Innocent people were killed by the police in order to get promotions. But this cannot be considered justice because the parents of these children, who had filed these cases, have passed away many years ago.
Such encounters took place in Punjab most often between 1984 and 1995. The police officer would first select the youth of a village on the basis of raw information collected from here and there. Then late at night or early in the morning, one or more youths would be picked up from their homes while they were sleeping. The family would not get any news of their deceased for two to three days and then in a police encounter, they would be killed. The news of the killing would come. After that, there would be no transport for the weeping family. Then the victim’s family would approach the courts in despair and from there they would hope for justice. The courts are now fulfilling the hopes of the victims and this is also the demand for justice. Even if this justice was met late. The story of the fake encounter between Baldev Singh Deba and Kulwant Singh is also similar.
