Under Sl. No. 73/197, the list identifies the 28 July 1990 cremation of Chanan Singh, s/o Darshan Singh, r/o Chumlewad, carried out by the SHO of Tarn Taran’s City police station under FIR No. 147/90. The postmortem report is marked as BL 51/90 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/01567. The main informant is the victim’s father Darshan Singh.

Nineteen-year old Channan Singh, son of Darshan Singh and Swaran Kaur, was a resident of Khehra Patti in village Chooslewal within Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. Darshan Singh was a small farmer with only five acres of land, insufficient for providing for the livelihood of his four sons. Channan Singh’s two brothers joined the Indian army and Channan Singh himself became a truck driver with a transport firm that had a tie up with business firms in the State of Gujrat. Channan Singh used to drive a truck regularly to Baroda city and had to stay away from home for several months at a time. No one in the family suspected Channan Singh of being involved with militant activities because the police had never asked for him. Nor had Darshan Singh noticed such an inclination in his son. Channan Singh was unmarried.

In the morning of 26 July 1990, around 11 a.m., a group of officers from Patti police station, led by an Inspector, raided Darshan Singh’s house and, after questioning him about his sons, carried out a thorough search of the house. Nothing incriminating was discovered, but the officers took Darshan Singh away with them to Patti police station and questioned him about Channan Singh and his activities. Darshan Singh suspected, from the nature of his interrogation, that Channan Singh had been arrested and was in police custody. He also overheard police personnel talking about his son over their wireless sets. But no one clearly told him that his son was in police custody. On 28 July morning, the Inspector who had arrested Darshan Singh took him out of the lock-up and told him to go home. Darshan Singh had no clue that his son had been killed in an “encounter” and his dead body cremated while he remained in police custody.

After returning to his house, Darshan Singh heard from some people in the village that his son had been declared killed in an “encounter” near Mallian village, reportedly involving a group of militants and the Tarn Taran police. Darshan Singh realized that his own arrest and interrogtion had something to do with his son’s detention and elimination. But he still does not know when and from where Channan Singh had been arrested and why the police decided to eliminate him. Darshan Singh did not have the courage to go back to the police station and no official ever came to give him any information about Channan Singh’s killing and his cremation. ')"

Report | Database | Backgrounder |Articles | Legal Battles | Interviews | Links |Get Involved |
News |Advocacy | About us | Home | Search this site |
Copyright©CIIP