29 Years after Encounter, Panjab Police admits ‘It Was Fake’

Twenty-nine years after Panjab Police claimed to have killed militant Gurnam Singh Bandala (alias Neela Tara) in an encounter, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) that the encounter was stage-managed and the First Information Report (FIR) in the case was ‘registered by falsifying facts.’ Special Director General of Police (DGP) Gurpreet Kaur Deo made the submission through an affidavit in the case registered on 29 Jul, 1994 pertaining to a police encounter stating an unrelated person Sukhpal Singh was abducted and killed in Ropar. Subsequently, it came to light that Bandala was alive. A fresh criminal case has been registered against former Inspector-General (IG) Paramraj Singh Umranangal, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jaspal Singh and Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Gurdev Singh. The petition was filed in 2013 by the victim’s wife, Dalbir Kaur, and his father Jagir Singh of Kala Afghana village through counsel R. Kartikeya. During the 2015 protests against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, two innocent protestors were killed at Behbal Kalan. In 2019, the SIT investigating their deaths arrested IG Umranangal. He is currently suspended, but it goes to show how a tainted official can rise high in the police system. Many Sikhs maintain that in the 1980s-90s, the police turned Panjab into killing fields through rampant enforced encounters and extrajudicial killings. While the government keeps denying facts and numbers, Sikh organizations and human rights activists have pursued the cases relentlessly. For example, Pilibhit (1991) which was later commuted from 10-years rigorous imprisonment to 7-years, or even a case as late as September 2023. Here is a partial list.