Under Sl. Nos. 118/387, 119/388 and 120/389, the list identifies three cremations carried out on 14 April 1991 by SHO Gulzar Singh of Tarn Taran’s City police station under FIR No. 56/91. They are of [1] Nirvail Singh, s/o Amrik Singh, r/o Moose, [2] Ram Singh, s/o Shinda Singh, r/o Behni Gurmukh Singh and [3] Kulwant Singh, s/o Mohinder Singh, r/o Moose. The postmortem reports are marked as AK 46/91, AK 47/91 and AK 48/91. The cause of death is mentioned as “firearm injuries”.

The Committee has the following information in these cases through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01513, 01479 and 01390. The main informants are Amrik Singh and Salwinder Singh, fathers of Nirvail Singh and Ram Singh, respectively, and Bhajan Kaur, mother of Kulwant Singh.

Twenty-two year old Nirvail Singh, s/o Amrik Singh and Salwinder Kaur, from village Bhaini Gurmukh Singh, post office Margindpura, under Bhikhiwind police station in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district, was an unregistered medical practioner in his village. After completing high school, Nirvail worked for three years under one Dr. Bhullar in the town of Bhikhiwind and then opened a clinic at his village. He was married to Sukhchain Kaur and had a daughter Ramanpreet Kaur.

In October or November 1990, DSP Paramjit Singh Teja detained Nirvail for interrogation because he suspected him of helping Sikh militants. Nirvail was released after fifteen days of illegal custody. But the police remained suspicious and started raiding his house to arrest him again. To keep him away from the troubles in Punjab, Nirvail’s parents decided to send him to live with a relative in Maharashtra. Nirvail Singh persuaded Ram Dev Singh of his village to accompany him.

Ram Dev Singh was only 14. His father’s name, mentioned in the CBI’s List as Shinda Singh, is actually Salwinder Singh. Ram Dev was a baptized Sikh.

In 1990, Salwinder Singh persuaded his son Ram Dev to drop out of the local school and run a grocery store in the village from the fear that at school he may develop contacts with people involved in the militant movement. He was particularly concerned about Ram Dev’s friendship with Nirvail Singh of his own village whose house had been raided by the police a few times.

Early 1991, Ram Dev went away with Nirvail ostensibly to find a job for himself in Bombay as a truck driver. Salwinder Singh did not like this, but he could not stop his son from going. While Ram Dev was away, the police did not come to the house to make inquiries. So, he assumed that all was well with his son.

On 13 April 1991, Nirvail’s sister-in-law was getting married at her village Palasaur. Aparently, Nirvail and Ram Dev came back to their village riding in a truck that belonged to Kulwant Singh.

Twenty-two year old Kulwant Singh, a truck driver, was the only son of his widowed mother Bhajan Kaur, and was from Moose village under Jhabbal police station. He was married to Lakhwinder Kaur and had never been arrested or interrogated before. It is not clear whether Kulwant was already acquainted with Nirvail and Ram Dev, or whether they had just taken a ride in his truck because they belonged to neighboring villages and Kulwant was returning home. In any case, Kulwant Singh did not go with them to Palasaur. He parked his truck outside Gurdwara Thathi Khara and went inside to offer his prayers. Nirvail and Ram Dev left for Palasaur on a scooter, which they borrowed from a person known to them at the Gurdwara.

A police convoy moving on the Tarn Taran – Jhabbal road, led by SP (Operations) Khubi Ram, noticed Nirvail and Ram Dev riding a scooter on the road from Noordi leading to Palasuar. SP Khubi Ram, without issuing any warning, opened fire, killing both of them on the spot. Nirvail and Ram Dev were carrying their driver’s licenses, but on 14 April 1991, Ajit and Jagbani reported the incident as an encounter in which three unidentified militants were killed.

On 14 April 1991 early forenoon, Nirvail Singh family’s in the village received the information that the police had killed Nirvail Singh and Ram Dev Singh in an alleged encounter near village Noordi, and arrested one Kulwant Singh of Moose village under Jhabbal police station from the Gurdwara at village Thathi Khara. He also was later killed.

The police claimed that Kulwant Singh was killed in the same encounter. But according to his mother Bhajan Kaur, Kulwant Singh had completed his prayers and was eating in the langar [community kitchen] of the Gurdwara when the Tarn Taran City police carried out a raid and took Kulwant Singh into custody. The police falsely claimed that he was killed in the “encounter” along with Nirvail Singh and Ram Dev Singh.

A member of the Gurudwara management committee at village Thathi Khara, where Kulwant Singh had left his truck, went to Nirvail Singh’s house and informed the family about the incident. After this, the family members of Nirvail Singh and Ram Dev Singh went together to the hospital in Tarn Taran where the dead bodies had supposedly been sent for postmortem. The police had already taken the bodies away for cremations and pyres were burning when they reached Tarn Taran cremation ground.

The Tarn Taran police went to Kulwant Singh’s house around 2 p.m., on 14 April 1991 and asked his grandfather Gurmej Singh to come along with them to witness the cremation. But the pyre had already been lit and Kulwant’s body had been reduced to ashes when he reached the cremation ground.

Following the incident, Ram Dev Singh’s mother Prakash Kaur reportedly became mentally instable. Ram Singh’s grandfather Gian Singh became bed ridden, too, and died one year after the incident.

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