The Disappearance Of Jaswant Singh Khalra

In 1995 the Human Rights Wing of the Akali Dal, headed by Jaswant Singh Khalra, filed Writ Petition No. 900 in Punjab and Haryana High Court to request an inquiry into the possibility of mass cremations in Punjab. However, the High Court dismissed the petition with the remark that it was "too vague", and that the petitioner had "no standing" in the matter. Following the dismissal, the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab moved the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India to demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the matter. It alleged that persons had been cremated as unidentified, against the prescribed procedure in such cases, not because their identities were not known or knowable, and not because there were none to claim them, but by virtue of a systematic policy of extrajudicial execution and secret disposal of corpses.

While the petition before the Supreme Court was still at the preliminary stage of hearing, uniformed commandos of the Punjab police abducted Jaswant Singh Khalra from outside his house on 6 September 1995. This was the individual who had been primarily responsible for the cremation grounds investigation, a respected human rights worker who had spoken both in India and overseas about the human rights issues at stake in Punjab. According to affidavits sworn by Khalra's colleagues and acquaintances including Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee's Chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Ajit Singh Bains, and close associate Jaspal Singh Dhillon (who later took over his work in leading the Akali Dal's Human Rights Wing - now Human Rights and Democracy Forum), Khalra had been receiving threats from Ajit Singh Sandhu, Senior Superintendent of Police, Tarn Taran. They testified that Khalra had been told to stop the investigation into the matter of illegal cremations and that he had been warned explicitly that "we can make one more body disappear, too." Jaswant Singh Khalra's wife petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus. A bench of the court presided over by Justice Kuldip Singh ordered the CBI to investigate not only Khalra's disappearance, but also the larger issue of illegal cremations, for which he had apparently sacrificed his life.

The CBI eventually held police officials under Ajit Singh Sandhu, SSP of Tarn Taran, responsible for Khalra's abduction. The investigation into the question of illegal cremations was completed in December of 1996, but the court opted to keep the report secret. It did release figures on illegal cremations at Durgiana Mandir, Patti and Tarn Taran cremation grounds, however. Out of the total numbers of bodies cremated by Punjab police at these sites, the CBI had completed the identification of 585 bodies, only partially identifying 274, but failing in the identification of over 1238. In its order dated 11 December 1996, the Supreme Court observed: "Needless to say that the report discloses flagrant violation of human rights on a mass scale." The Court went on to pass an order requiring the National Human Rights Commission to examine all issues arising from the CBI's report. The court further clarified that as the NHRC was to examine the matter at the request of the court, any compensation awarded by the NHRC would be binding and payable.