Under Sl. Nos. 84/256 and 85/257, the list identifies two cremations carried out by SHO Surinder Singh of Harike police station on 04 October 1990 under FIR No. 66/90. They are of [1] Bhinder Singh, s/o Gurbachan Singh, r/o Shakhera and [2] Satnam Singh, s/o Bhajan Singh, r/o Baghari. Bhinder Singh’s postmortem report is marked as MS 123/90. Satnam’s postmortem report is said to be not available. The cause of death is recorded as “firearm injuries”.

The Committee has the following information through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/1571 and 1547. The main informants are Bhinder Singh’s father Gurbachan Singh and Satnam’s mother Jagir Kaur.

Bhinder’s full name was Bhupinder Singh. He was 23 years old and the son of Gurbachan Singh and Sukhraj Kaur, who lived at Dhariwal village in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. Gurbachan Singh was originally from Sakhira village in Tarn Taran subdivision of the district. But he had bought some land in Dhariwal village and had shifted his residence. Bhupinder was the older of his two sons and started helping him with the agricultural work after completing his school education. Bhupinder was a baptized Sikh, associated with a Sikh religious leader Charan Singh who specialized in organizing voluntary labor for the reconstruction of historical Sikh shrines. Bhupinder had also trained himself in the recitation of the Sikh scripture. At religious functions, Bhupinder used to receive invitations to recite the scripture, usually for a fee, which helped supplement his income.

In 1987, Sarhalli Kalan police had illegally detained and terribly tortured him while he was at village Shaheed engaged in a recitation of the scripture at a religious ceremony. His father had to pay a bribe of Rs. 70,000 to get him out alive. The police framed him in a TADA case and sent him to jail. Bhupinder came out on bail after nine months. When the police continued to arrest and torture him even after his release from prison, Bhupinder left his home and began to live with his religious mentor.

Seventeen-year old Satnam Singh, s/o Bhajan Singh and Jagir Kaur, was from village Baghiari, Patti Kahn Singh Wali, under Jhabbal police station, in Tarn Taran subdivision of Amritsar district.

Like Bhupinder, Satnam was also a baptized Sikh and had done voluntary labor at various Gurdwaras organized by Baba Charan Singh. That was the basis of his acquaintance with Bhupinder Singh. Satnam had never been arrested or interrogated by the police.

On 3 October 1990, during the course of a combing operation, Harike police arrested Bhupinder and Satnam from the house of Bhupinder Singh’s maternal grandparents at Ratta Gudda village. The same day, the police enacted an encounter near a farmhouse in the same village and declared them killed. Satnam’s parents learned of the execution when a constable attached to Harike police station came and informed them. They sent a message to Bhupinder Singh’s family and reached Patti hospital where the bodies had been sent for postmortem. A large number of people from Dhariwal and Baghiari villages also came to the hospital and forced the police to hand over the dead bodies to the family members for their cremation.

Although the cremations were carried out by the family members themselves, at their own villages, the CBI’s list says that they were carried out by SHO Surinder Singh of Harike police. ')"

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