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Fake encounters in Punjab: Baghel Singh was killed in cold blood after being brought from TATA Nagar

July 17, 2013 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Jalandhar, Punjab (July 17, 2013): Recently a Punjab cop Surjit Singh (SI – Sub-inspector) stunned many by openly admitting that he was involved in various fake encounters in Punjab in which at least 83 persons were killed by him at the orders of his superior police officers. In a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while seeking security, Surjit Singh presented a list of 16 fake encounters.

In the list of 83 persons the name of Baghel Singh of village Dehriwal, district Amritsar, also figures about whom he had claimed that he was killed by crushing under a bullet proof vehicle of police repeatedly after being brought from TATA Nagar.

Now Baghel Singh’s family has come out narrating the events prior to his elimination by police.

According to a news reported by Times of India (TOI), Harbhajan Singh, elder brother of Baghel Singh, said “Surjit has rightly disclosed that Baghel Singh was brought from Tata Nagar. We had gone there to escape the police wrath after my 19-year-old son and a nephew were killed by the police in fake encounters”. Harbhajan Singh reportedly said this on July 14, 2013 in Jalandhar as he had come to Jalandhar to attend a meeting of families of those killed in fake encounters in Punjab.

“Our father Bahadar Singh was district president of Shiromani Akali Dal. When Baghel Singh was brought to Punjab from Jamshedpur on production warrant on January 14, 1992, Badal and other Akali leaders — including Simranjit Singh Mann and then AISSF president (and now PEDA chairman) Bhai Manjit Singh –had issued a joint statement expressing apprehension that he could be eliminated in fake encounter,” Harbhajan Singh reportedly said while producing news clipping of prominent Punjabi and English dailies of January 1992.

According to Times of India (TOI) “Baghel Singh was shown dead on January 19 in an accident with a truck while being shifted from one place to another. Badal and other leaders had demanded that he be produced in court and be tried in court if there was anything against him”.

“I wrote to the PM, Punjab governor and DGP with same apprehension and my father sent telegrams to them when Baghel Singh was brought to Punjab,” Harbhajan Singh recently recalled while producing a copy of letter to PM along with a copy of the surety bond submitted by Punjab Police while taking Baghel Singh on production warrant from a court in Jamshedpur.

“Our sister tried to pursue Baghel Singh’s whereabouts when he was brought here and she came to know that he had been killed and cremated at Durgiana Mandir cremation ground. The caretaker at the cremation ground told us that Baghel Singh’s body was badly mutilated,” he said.

Baghel Singh’s only son Hardepinder Singh, who was three-year-old when his father was killed, recalled that even after his father was killed, their family was chased to Indore where they tried to settle after leaving Punjab.

“I remember I was five when our family had to run away from our home in Indore as Punjab cops came there to pounce upon us,” he recalled. The family returned to Punjab in last week of May this year after spending two decades in Indore.

“Now, we will pursue the legal battle in the High Court to seek justice when Surjit Singh SI has corroborated that it was a murder by the police” said Harbhajan Singh and Hardepinder Singh.

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Related Topics: Fake Encounters, Punjab Police, Punjab Police Atrocities, Surjit Singh SI

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