The CBI list, under Sl. No. 147/582, identifies the 28 November 1991 cremation of Nirbail Singh, s/o Dilip Singh, r/o Allaudinpur carried out by SHO Major Singh of Sirhali police station under FIR No. 124/91. The postmortem report is numbered PS 83/91. The cause of death is mentioned as “police encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in the case through its Incident-Report Form No. CCDP/01379. The main informant is the victim’s father Dalip Singh.

Nirvail Singh, from Aladinpur under Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station, was a 35 year old farmer, married to Amrik Kaur with two sons, who are now 17 and 16. For some years, he had been living at his wife’s ancestral village Dargapur under police station Sarhali because his father-in-law had expired, leaving behind his young son. He needed help looking after his agricultural land. Nirvail Singh also owned two trucks and had a substantial income. He had no political or militant connections and had never been arrested.

Very early in the morning of 27 November 1991, around 5 a.m., Nirvail Singh went out to his fields to relieve himself. He was not aware that the police and paramilitary forces had surrounded the village for a combing operation and a house to house search was in progress. The security forces probably mistook him for a militant and without giving him any warning fired at Nirvail Singh, killing him on the spot. The police took his body and his family did not learn what happened to him until several hours later.

Nirvail Singh’s father Dilip Singh found about his son’s murder late that evening and went and met SHO Major Singh of Sarhali police station early 28th morning. SHO Major Singh expressed remorse and said that the killing of Nirvail Singh had been inadvertent. He invited the family members to attend the cremation. Although the police brought the body and organized the pyre, the family members were able to conduct the cremation according to religious custom.

However, on 28 November 1991, daily Ajit published a report describing Nirvail Singh as a militant killed in an “encounter” with the police near village Dargapur. ')"

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