Under Sl. No. 34/77, the list identifies the 08 May 1989 cremation of Baldev Singh alias Gulla Singh, s/o Ajit Singh Jat, r/o Khabe Rajput, carried out by SHO Surinder Singh of Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station under FIR No. 31/89. The postmortem report is marked as HSS 35/89 and the cause of death is given as “police encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in this case through its Incident-Report Form No. CCDP/01512. The main informant is the victim’s father Ajit Singh.

Twenty-two year old Baldev Singh alias Ghulla, son of Ajit Singh and Charan Kaur, was a resident of Khabbe Rajputan, post office Luhka, under Patti police station in Tarn Taran subdivision of Amritsar district. All of his family members were baptized Sikhs. After completing his matriculation, Baldev, like his elder brother, became a technical apprentice at the Sherpur Thrasher Company at Ludhiana in 1987 and trained himself as a proficient mechanic. In October or November 1987, a group of CRPF officials arrested Baldev while he was on his way to his village. The family members found out about the arrest and approached SP (Operations) Khubi Ram to either release him or bring him before a court. Khubi Ram told them that Baldev was innocent and they should get him released from Jhabbal police station. When the family members approached the SHO of Jhabbal police station, he demanded a bribe of Rs. 50,000 for Baldev’s release. When Baldev’s family members could not raise the money, the SHO registered several cases of murder and robbery against Baldev and sent him to jail. Baldev was released on bail 11 months later. Baldev resumed his work at the Thrasher Company at Ludhiana.

In the first week of May 1989, when Baldev Singh had come home after taking leave from his factory, a group of officers from Sadar station in Tarn Taran raided his house and took him into custody. The officers told the family members that Baldev was needed for an inquiry and that they should come to the police station to talk to the SHO about the matter.

A few hours later, Ajit Singh, accompanied by several members of the village council and other prominent persons of the area, went to Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station. However, the SHO refused to admit Baldev’s custody and told the family members to look for him at other police stations.

On 8 May 1989, around 11 a.m., another group of officers from Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station came to Baldev’s house and forced his mother and a member of the village council to come along with them to the police station to identify Baldev’s dead body. After the identification, the SHO handed over the dead body to the family members and the cremation was carried out at the village in the presence of a large number of its residents. It is not clear why the cremation figures in the CBI’s list of identified cremations carried out by the police.

The family was unable to ascertain the circumstances in which Baldev had been killed.')"

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