Under Sl. Nos. 19/49, 20/50 and 21/51, the list identifies three 29 June 1988 cremations carried out by SHO Mohinder Singh of Valtoha police station, under FIR No. 86/88. They are of [1] Surjeet Singh, s/o Jagga Singh Jat, r/o Ghariyala, [2] Chanan Singh, s/o Puran Singh Jat, r/o village Assal Utar and [3] Swaran Singh, s/o Gurmej Singh, r/o Assar Uttar. The postmortem reports are marked as SLG 34/88, SLG 35/88 and SLG 36/88. The cause of death in all three cases is stated as “police encounter”.

The Committee has received the following information in the case of Swaran Singh through its Incident-Report Form No. CCDP/01250. Jaswant Singh, the victim’s brother is the main informant.

Swaran Singh, alias Samma, 24, resident of Asal Utar, Qila Sodhian Wala under Valtoha police station in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district, had been active in the agitation launched by the Akali Dal in July 1982. He lived with his widowed mother and was unmarried. In the course of the Akali agitation prior to the army action in June 1984, Swaran Singh had courted arrest and had spent some time in jail. He did not have a criminal record, nor was he wanted in connection with any militant offence. But he sympathized with the militant movement for Khalistan and had friends who were involved in it.

On 28 June 1988, Swaran Singh, along with his friend Channan Singh, s/o Pooran Singh of Asal Utar, went with Surjit Singh, s/o Jagga Singh and resident of Ghariala, to a house in his village. Surjit Singh was a member of a militant organization and was wanted by the police. On reaching the house, the police abducted all three of them, apparently tipped off about their visit. Later, all three were shot down in an orchestrated “encounter”.

On 29 June 1988 morning, constables from Ghariala police post picked up Swaran Singh’s brother, Jaswant Singh, for the identification of the dead bodies. After getting their postmortems done at Patti Civil hospital, the police handed over the dead bodies to the families, who carried out the cremations. The CBI’s list, however, mentions Sub-Inspector and SHO Mohinder Singh as the officer who requisitioned the cremations, contradicting the family’s testimony.

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