Jaswant Singh Khalra (2 November 1952 - October 1995) was an Indian Sikh human rights activist who garnered global attention in 1995 when he exposed that the Punjab police were responsible for around 25, 000 murders that had been covered up. He was kidnapped and murdered by Punjab police later that year.
Biography[]
Khalra worked as the director of a bank in Amritsar throughout the 1980s, when Punjab was going through a period of Sikh militancy. During this period, the Indian government had empowered the police to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without trial for any reason, which had led to widespread abuses of power and police brutality in the Punjab region.
Khalra first became involved in investigating the police when several of his Sikh colleagues went missing. Further investigation revealed the existence of files from the Amritsar municipal government which gave the names, ages and addresses of a number of people who had been killed in police custody in Amritsar. The Punjab police had been accusing young Sikhs of being militants and killing them in staged shootings, or else disappearing them while they were in custody and illegally cremating the bodies to cover it up. More research led to the discovery of more files in three other cities in Punjab, increasing the number of victims by thousands. Khalra found that around 25, 000 unlawful cremations had taken place in Punjab, suggesting that this was around the number of victims. He also claimed that the victims included approximately 2, 000 police officers who had been refusing to go along with the cover-up and had since disappeared.
Khalra, with help from the National Human Rights Commission, released the files in early 1995, sparking worldwide outrage. Although the Punjab police denied his claims, investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Supreme Court of India have since both concluded that the Punjab police did abduct and murder several thousand Sikhs under the pretence of counter-terrorism operations. Soon after, Khalra announced at a press conference that he expected to be killed and was prepared to die in the cause of justice, but that the Indian government should not think that his death would make the matter of 25, 000 murders go away.
On 6 September 1995, Khalra was kidnapped from outside his house and was never seen again. The Central Bureau of Investigation investigated his disappearence and found that he had been abducted by officers of the Punjab police. Several officers testified that Khalra had been taken to Jhabal Police Station, where he had been held for several weeks and tortured on the watch of Director General of Police Kanwar Pal Singh Gill (known as KPS Gill) before being murdered and cremated in October on the orders of Senior Superintendent Ajit Singh Sandhu. The CBI recommended charges against nine police officers, including Ajit Sandhu and KPS Gill. Ultimately, six of the named officers were found guilty of Khalra's abduction and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Two others, Ajit Sandhu and Deputy Superintendent Ashok Kumar, died under suspicious circumstances before charges could be filed. KPS Gill was never charged with any crime related to Khalra's murder.