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Prominent lawyers release fact finding report on Singhu murder case; View details (Also Watch Video)
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, October 21, 2021: A team of five lawyers, namely Navkiran Singh, Tejinder Singh Sudan, Yadvinder Singh Dhillon, Harinder Singh Ishar, and Parminder Singh Maloya have released their first hand finding on the Singhu border murder case.
The team visited Singhu Border for collecting first-hand information of the incidence of sacrilege and resultant killing of Lakhbir Singh on October 19, 2021:
Here’s their finding:
A team of five lawyers namely Navkiran Singh, Tejinder Singh Sudan, Yadvinder Singh Dhillon, Harinder Singh Ishar and Parminder Singh Maloya visited the farmers’ protest site at Singhu Border on 19.10.2021 for collecting first hand information of the incident of sacrilege and resultant killing of one Lakhbir Singh.
On reaching the spot the lawyers firstly met Nihang Baba Balwinder Singh who was Jathedar of Panth Akali Nirvair Khalsa Udna Dal, where the incident of sacrilege had taken place. It was shown to the team of lawyers that there was Prakash of Shri Guru Granth Sahib alongwith Dassam Granth and Sarabh Loh Granth. It was informed that lakhbir Singh had been visiting the dera of the Nihangs since the past two to three days of the incident. Lakhbir Singh was not a Nihang but on visiting the Dera, he used to perform services like cleaning and serving water to the horses etc. On 15-10-21 at about 3:00am the Granthi Nihang Singh with the help of Lakhbir Singh cleaned the place where the prakash of Guru Granth Sahib had been done and left for taking bath, leaving Lakhbir Singh behind in the said premises. On his coming back at about 3:30 am, to perform the daily morning prayers(Maharaj Prakash), he noticed that the Chaur Sahib and the Rumala Sahib had been scattered on the floor. On picking up the Chaur sahib and settling the Rumala sahib, the granthi Singh and the other Nihang Singh noticed that the sacred book(pothi) of Sarabh Loh Granth and a sword( Kirpan) were missing. Lakhbir Singh who was present when the Granthi had left was also not in site. Suspecting some conspiracy the Granthi Singh along with another Nihang Singh ran out to look for Lakhbir Singh and to inform other persons. It also came to the knowledge of the team of lawyers that Jathedar Baba Balwinder Singh was not present at Singhu border at the time of the incident.
The Granthi Singh and the other Nihang Singh caught hold of Lakhbir Singh, who was dressed up as a Nihang(in Bana)which he had taken from a clothes line of the Dera coming from the side of the main stage of the farmers’ protest at the Singhu Border and as he was questioned and confronted, Lakhbir Singh revealed that he had taken the Granth and thrown it behind the main stage at a particular place. The Nihang Singhs Bhagwant Singh and Gobindpreet Singh after recovering the Sarabh Loh Granth took Lakhbir Singh( Desecrator) to the Dera of Jathedar Baba Aman Singh, On reaching there, they explained the sacrilege committed by lakhbir Singh to Baba Aman Singh
The Nihangs present there reacted by terming the sacrilege act equivalent to harming their own father. One of the Nihangs severed the hand of the desecrator Lakhbir Singh and another who arrived lateron in fury being religiously hurt severed one foot of the desecrator. The reasoning given By Nihang Singhs for inflicting of injuries was that the Nihang Singhs could not bear the disrespect to their Holy Granth and since many such incidents had taken place in the past and no justice has been done in the matters so they opted to take spontaneous reaction and punish the culprit. They also informed that they tried to investigate from the victim about the involvement of other persons in the said act as they termed it as a conspiracy to eventually hurt the on going farmers protest.
It came to the knowledge of the visiting team that Lakhbir Singh had been tied to the barricades and on the objections of One senior Nihang, he was untied and at that moment of time lakhbir Singh was alive but as there was no medical help in reach, it further resulted into the death of Lakhbir Singh.
The visitng team of lawyers further visited the Dera of Jathedar Baba Aman Singh and met him to seek his version in regard to the incident. At the time of the visit the team also got to meet Insp Ravi Kumar Station House Officer of P.S Kundli, who was visiting Baba Aman Singh at that point of time. The team inquired about the status of the complaint filed in regard to offence of sacrilege by Baba Balwinder Singh from the inspector. It was revealed by the Inspector that an F.I.R in regard to the commission of offence of sacrilege had also been got registered at P.S Kundli having F.I.R No 612 dated 15-10-21 under section 295-A at Police Station Kundli, Haryana. It came to the knowledge of the visiting lawyers that Nihang Sarabjit Singh belonged to the Nihang Dera of Baba Aman Singh and he had joined the Dera about 1 ½ years ago. Earlier to the joining of the Dera he was employed on a ship. Baba Aman Singh also reiterated the facts in regard to the incident and informed that the Nihang Sarabjit who had claimed that he had inflicted the injuries had surrendered before the police. He further informed that sacrilege incidents were on the rise and the Nihangs would not accept the sacrilege of their Granths.
The visiting team also met Jathedar Baba Raja Raj Singh where the team was informed that all the arrested Nihang Singhs who the police claimed are involved in inflicting injuries were also earlier belonging to the Schedule castes before being Baptized as Nihang Singhs as he termed them to be belonging to Rangreta Dal Singhs.
Till today four Nihangs namely Baba Narain Singh, Sarabjit Singh, Bhagwant Singh and Gobindpreet Singh have been arrested in the case of the killing of Lakhbir Singh. So it came to light in our investigation that the accused, as well as the deceased, belong to the Dalit class.
Another aspect that has come to the knowledge of the visiting team is that the sections regarding the SC/ST Act have been added to the F.I.R without even investigating any atrocities alleged to have been committed upon the victim by the assailants who themselves are belonging to similar castes. It also came to light that efforts had been made to demoralize the community belonging to the scheduled castes by terming the incident as the infliction of atrocities upon the scheduled castes by the Nihangs. It seems that this was being done for seeking political mileage as many politicians had made comments regarding this.
The matter is not just limited to the killing of Lakhbir Singh in a manner that cannot be justified as per law but also regarding the sacrilege incident. Obviously, the depth of the matter is to be reached by investigating the role of the people involved in sending Lakhbir Singh to the farmers’ protest site at Singhu border to facilitate the incident of sacrilege and at the same time the role of people making efforts to press upon Nihang Jathedar Baba Aman Singh to leave the farmers protest site at Singhu Border by offering him monetarily and other help.
FINDINGS / RECOMMENDATIONS
- From our detailed interviews of all the concerned parties as well as evidence collected from spot we reach to the conclusion that under some Ulterior Motive and Deep Rooted Conspiracy by Forces who want to weaken or derail the Farmers Agitation Lakhbir Singh ( deceased) had been taken to the Singhu border. He though being clean shaven but belonging to a family having faith in Sikh religion and knowing well the basics of the religion got easily mixed up with Nihang Singhs of Dera headed by Baba Balwinder Singh in whose Dera he showed disrespect to the revered religious book of the Nihangs known by the title “ Sarb Loh Granth”.
- That there has been great hue and cry in the society about the manner in which the Deceased who is accused of desecrating “ Sarb Loh Granth” was illtreated by the Nihangs. We based on collected evidence feel that to analyse the situation one will have to step into the shoes of the thought process of a Nihang Singh who is a militant class and were part of the army of Guru Gobind Singh Jee, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs and feel this their bounden duty to use all means to protect Sikh Religion, Gurudwaras as well as Sikhs from its enemies. The Nihangs on being interviewed by us disclosed that they were deeply hurt religiously and due to this Grave Provocation, at the Heat of the Moment acted in a manner which is taken by an ordinary person as cruel.
- That from our detailed investigation we feel that firstly there was a Sudden and Grave Provocation due to which the Nihang Singhs extremely devout Sikhs reacted in the said manner and to punish the wrongdoer ( deceased Lakhbir Singh), who upon being beaten up to extract the information of the conspirators about who had sent him with ulterior motive and on getting to know that a dozen others like him had been sent by some forces to derail the Farmers agitation, the Nihangs lost their cool and severed one of the hands of Deceased and later on another Nihang joined who also being deeply hurt due to the incident severed a foot of the deceased and the police present on the spot remained mute spectator and did not intervene or cared to provide medical aid to the deceased, who lost his life due to excessive loss of blood.
- The people at large, as well as Nihangs interviewed by us, also feel that a large section of the Sikhs, as well as them, are fed up with incidents of sacrilege of holy books of the Sikhs since 2015 and thereafter on day to day basis and the failure of the Police and the lengthy processes in the Judicial courts which reach nowhere, has created an atmosphere where the Sikhs are losing their faith in the systems due to its Rigmaroles.
- People feel that there was a Larger conspiracy to derail and defame the Farmers agitation at Singhu Border and since Nihangs through their 8 Deras at the site of Farmers agitation are providing protective cover to the Farmers lodged over there who had earlier also been attacked by local Goons and incidents of burning of the tents and stone-pelting has taken place, the Farmers as well Nihangs feel that the conspiracy is to force the Nihangs to leave the site unprotected and to leave it to miscreants to create a law and order situation which will make the Farmers insecure and ultimately being forced by circumstances to leave Singh Border. We recommend to Punjab state to get the Conspiracy theory investigated as to who all conspired to bring people like the victim to the farmers' agitation site. Since the Conspiracy was hatched in Punjab, the Punjab police will be well within its powers to investigate the same.
- We recommend to Haryana police to delete the insertion of offenses relating to the SC / ST Act as the victim and the accused all belong to the SC/ ST category.
- We condemn the statements of political leaders as well as constitution authorities of making misleading statements to show as if the incident is an atrocity committed against a Dalit and try to arouse sentiments of the public on a caste basis.
3. That We feel at pain at the loss of life of Lakhbir Singh and feel that even though he had abandoned his family since last 5 years as per the information gathered by us, but society needs to ensure that his widow and 3 daughters need to be provided with amenities of daily life as well as education to stand on their legs.
4. We also feel that the accused Nihang Singhs should be provided with effective Legal Aid as nobody should be condemned unheard.