Under Sl. Nos. 69/167, 70/168 and 71/169, the list identifies three cremations on 03 March 1990, carried out by Head Constable Deedar Singh of Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station under FIR No. 11/90. They are of: [1] Bhupinder Singh alias Bhola, s/o Chanchal Singh, r/o Jandiala Guru, [2] Ranjeet Singh alias Bitu, s/o Harbhajan Singh Jat, r/o Jandiala Guru and [3] Dilbagh Singh, s/o Hari Singh Jat, r/o Dhotian. The postmortem reports are marked as KS 20/90, KS 21/90 and PS 13/90. The cause of death is mentioned to be “firearm injuries/ encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in these cases through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01380, 01507 and 01510. The main informants are Bhupinder’s mother Sukhwinder Kaur; Ranjit’s mother Surinder Kaur; and Dalip Singh, the father of Dilbagh Singh.

Dilbagh Singh was a 22 year old unmarried Sikh boy from Baba Samse Ki, Dhotian under Sarhalli police station. In the CBI’s list Dilbagh’s father is mentioned as Hari Singh, which is not correct. His father is Dalip Singh.

Dilbagh, a baptized Sikh, had trained himself as a reader of the Guru Granth Sahib, the main Sikh scripture. He earned his livelihood by going on recitation tours for a fee. He also sympathized with the militant movement in Punjab. For his sympathies, Dilbagh had been arrested and put in jail for 27 months. Even after his release on bail, the police continued to harass him, picking him up regularly for interrogation under torture. To escape these harassments, Dilbagh became a fugitive in February 1990.

Twenty-four year old Ranjit Singh alias Bittu, son of Harbhajan Singh and Surinder Kaur, a student of a technical institute at Amritsar, was a resident of House No. 885, Namdev road, Jandiala Guru in Amritsar district. His father Harbhajan Singh was an officer with the Indian railways. His uncle and his brother-in-law, sister’s husband, were officers of the Punjab police.

In 1987, the Jandiala police began to suspect Ranjit of maintaining contacts with militants. After interrogating him illegally for 20 days, the police charged him with several offences under TADA. Ranjit remained in jail for one year, and then came out on bail. For three months thereafter, the police did not harass him.

Meanwhile, Ranjit’s uncle and brother-in-law had been receiving threats from Sikh militants who wanted them to quit the police service. They contacted Ranjit who was acquainted with a well-known militant leader of the area named Bhupinder Singh Bhola. Ranjit promised to get in touch with Bhupinder Singh and get him to dissuade other militants from threatening his uncle and brother-in-law.

On 02 March 1990, Ranjit had gone to village Jahangir to meet this well-known miliant to sort out the problems faced by his relatives. As soon as he arrived at the site, around 10 p.m., in the night, a large police force surrounded the place and a real encounter followed in which Dilbagh Singh, Ranjit Singh, Bhupinder Singh Bhola, and Sukhdev Singh of Janian village, were killed.

Twenty-three year old Bhupinder Singh Bhola, son of Chanchal Singh and Sukhwinder Kaur, was resident of Jujhar Nagar, Verowal road, in Jandiala Guru of Amritsar district. While studying for his matriculation at the government school, Bhupinder joined the Sikh Students Federation. The police became suspicious and started to detain him illegally for interrogation under torture. In 1988, the police charged him with several offences under TADA, but he managed to get out on bail after nine months. When the police started to raid his house again, Bhupinder gave up his normal life and joined the militant underground. The police inflicted great suffering on his family because of this decision. The police arrested his father a number of times and tortured him terribly for information about Bhupinder’s whereabouts. The family members were not allowed to cultuvate their land and in the end they all had to flee the village after mortagaging their land.

The police returned Ranjit’s dead body to his family at the recommendation of Amritsar’s SSP. Ranjit Singh was cremated at his village. All others were cremated at Patti cremation ground. However, the list of identified cremations includes the name of Ranjit Singh whose body was actually cremated at his village. The list does not include the cremation of Sukhdev Singh, resident of Janian, which is recorded in the list of unidentified cremations under Sl. 87/171. This cremation was also carried out on 3 March 1990 by HC Deedar Singh; the postmortem report is marked as KS-20/90.

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