Assassination of Lalit Maken

Explained by Shaheed Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha & Shaheed Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda

 

“…Many days had passed and the thought came to mind that a bigger target should be served justice.

 

It was always the plan to go for bigger fish, to show impact and serve justice to those who thought they were untouchable. However, the information and whereabouts of these perpetrators was always few and far between.

 

One day Changiara (Codename used for Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda) went to Sri Bangla Sahib Gurdwara (Delhi) and came across a book named ‘Who are the guilty?’ From this book, many names of individuals were given, along with information of the crimes and abuse inflicted on the Sikhs. However, there were no address details for the majority of these individuals detailed in this book.

 

The book narrated how in 1984, these perpetrators murdered thousands of Sikhs, burnt them alive, burnt their houses, raped Sikh women and the numerous accounts of merciless abuse. Having read the entire book, the heart was bleeding with sorrow and pain. The heart declared that until justice is served, we cannot sit in peace. The eagerness to carry out seva for justice had now grown even more within me.

 

One day I went to meet Surjit (Bhai Surjit Singh Painta) and took the time to discuss it with him. Surjit said he would be able to obtain the addresses of each and every one of these perpetrators. Within four to five days, Surjit had provided the details of the individuals mentioned below:

 

  • K. L. Bhagat
  • Lalit Maken
  • Jagdish Tytler
  • Sajjan Kumar
  • Dharam Daas Shashtri
  • Jasbir Jaat (Youth Congress Leader)
  • Arjan Das
  • C. Pant

 

I then went to see Changiara and showed him the addresses. We both went out on the scooter and vetted each and every property. The biggest perpetrator was Lalit Maken who was the President of Labour Union. He had access to unlimited labourers, who helped him to have a hand in the greatest number of Sikhs killed. The men he hired were made to get drunk, rewarded with money, riled up and supplied with petrol oil which was used to douse and burn Sikhs alive. For this reason, he was a big perpetrator. He lived in Kirti Nagar (Delhi). Me and Changiara went to Kirti Nagar.

 

It was on a Wednesday. He (Maken) himself lived in Tilak Nagar. However, his mother and father lived in Kirti Nagar. He would visit Kirti Nagar every Wednesday. He had offices in multiple areas. Between 8-10am daily he would go and visit an office. In Kirti Nagar, the addresses of his offices were clearly visible. I wrote them all down. Tilak Nagar, Tihar Jail Road, Munirka and many other offices. Both Changiara and I went and vetted each and every office location and instigated a clear plan of action. This was very easy and we were hopeful that we will be able to punish him anywhere.

 

During these days, the Singhs from Ludhiana had attacked the local SSP, but the target survived. We read this news in the paper, because we already knew that Singhs were preparing to punish this evil man. We had sent the car to be used in this action from Delhi. Second third day, Dalbir came to us and informed us that “The plan has failed. The truck was meant to hit the car in which the SSP was sitting in, the truck was also bought with the money raised in Delhi. However, at the very moment of the planned collision, a rickshaw which seated a mother and child came in front of the truck. The truck driver manoeuvred to avoid hitting the rickshaw but in doing so it hit the SSP’s car which did not cause as much impact as intended. The truck driver, who was one of the Singhs, has arrested on the scene. Due to this, all other Singhs involved have gone underground, and they could come to you at any time for guidance and support.”

 

As expected, the Singhs arrived to meet us on 15th July. I was on my own that evening, Kuki (Ranjit Singh Gill) came up and said “Is your name Sukhdev Singh?” I responded, “Where have you come from?” And he replied, “I have come from Ludhiana.” This confirmed that it was the Singh based on the information shared by Dalbir. I asked “How did you come to know of my name?” He replied, “Dalbir told me so. We came this morning and asked the owner of this house, is this where Sharma lives and he replied, yes he lives here but will be home in the evening.”

 

Then Kuki told me that Sukhi (Sukhminder Singh Sandhu) and Bittu (Daljit Singh Bittu) were also with him and were waiting downstairs. I went down to receive them both. I made a quick trip to the local market and bought some cold drinks, cashews and biscuits and fed the Singhs. The Singhs were clean shaven, only Bittu had a somewhat small beard.

 

After three to four days, Bittu also shaved his beard. By this time, Changiara and Sharma (Sukhwinder Singh KC Sharma) had also joined the Singhs. Following a brief meeting, the Singhs said they will be on their way. They were asked, “Where will you go?” The Singhs responded saying they had made arrangements to stay somewhere and would regroup tomorrow.

 

As planned, the Singhs returned the following day. Of the three Singhs, Bittu began staying with us whilst the other two Singhs rented a room and stayed there. We would meet up regularly.

 

One day, Sukhi came to us and claimed that their landlord had become suspicious. The landlord’s son was drunk and came into their room started raving how we should all raid a bank, amongst other criminal activities. It was obvious that if they continued to stay there it would be a big risk.

 

The following day, the Singhs packed all their belongings and left the property. At this time, Dalbir and Baljinder had made a trip over from Delhi. Dalbir met with the Singhs from Ludhiana. We then told Dalbir about our plan to punish Lalit Maken. Dalbir then suggested we acquire a car and follow through with the mission to serve justice to Lalit Maken. He also said we should include one of the Singhs from Ludhiana. We would not want them to think that we did not ask them to come with us on this mission, especially as they had come to us.

 

However, this made me feel side-lined, since I had already vetted out the scene and planned the execution. Due to this, me, Baljinder (Baljinder Singh Raju) and Sharma decided that the three of us will punish this perpetrator ourselves.

 

(Editor’s note: The above explanation was from by Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha and the following explanation was from Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda.)

 

I had made plans to punish Lalit Maken with Mathra (Harwinder Singh Mathra). He said that we will all do this action in a car, because if we do this action on a scooter than all of us can not go. It is important that we take one of the Ludhiana Singhs with us and they may think we deliberately did not take them, so a car would be ideal for this action. I said OK, we will do this action in a car. Then I showed Mathra all the offices and explained on which day Maken is at which office. Brother Heera (Codename used for Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha) got suspicious and thought we will not take him on the action with us. Heera made plans with Sharma and Raju (Baljinder Singh Raju) to punish Maken.

 

The mission started with Shindu and Heera stopping off at an ice cream stand at Kalkaji, where they both had ice cream. Just as another man had finished his ice-cream and was about to get on his scooter, they snuck up to him with a pistol and forced him to hand over his scooter. With this, both had arrived at brother Painta’s house by 11pm.

 

Me and Mathra Singh were sleeping on the rooftop of brother Painta’s house. Both Shindu and Heera slept downstairs and were then already gone by the time we woke up. It was Painta who told me how brother Shindu and brother Heera came last night and left early on their scooter with helmets. Shindu and Heera had both made their way to Tagore Gardens to their rented accommodation to pick up their weapons. There, the Singhs from Ludhiana Bittu, Kuki and Sukhi were doing their morning Nitnem. They realised what was happening and the Singhs said, Take us with you.” Then Shindu and Heera said we’ll take one of you to join us. Kuki then got up to punish the perpetrator.

 

They picked up their sten gun and pistol to then arrive at Lalit Maken’s office. It was busy with a lot of public crowding round.

 

I had already become suspicious that Shindu and Heera were planning the assassination today, seeing as they had left at 4am and with helmets. So, I too, had picked up my scooter and made my way to Tagore Gardens and arrived at the same rented residence and was greeted by the Singhs. Bittu informed how Shindu, Heera and Kuki had left to go serve justice to this perpetrator. I also grabbed my weapon and left for Maken’s office.

 

As I arrived, I could see brother Shindu and brother Kuki stood outside the office amongst the public crowd. I also went and joined them.

 

They looked at me in astonishment and instructed me to leave, but I claimed “I am most certainly staying and want to be a part of serving justice to this perpetrator. So, if you both want to leave, please do so.” And like this, I forcefully made myself part of this action.

 

Brother Heera went into the office. I was sat on my scooter parked on the outskirts of the crowd and brother Shindu was sat on his scooter parked in the public scooter bays in between the crowd. He was holding a sten gun in a bag by his feet. Brother Heera also had a glass of water from the perpetrator’s house.

 

Within a short waiting time, a fruit seller appeared with his cart full of mangoes and began calling for customers. A woman came from Maken’s house to browse the mangoes. She began to ask the rates and cost of the Mangoes claiming they were very expensive and questioned the quality of the fruit.

 

Brother Shindu then also went and stood by the fruit cart and began picking the better mangoes of the bunch for the woman. Whilst doing so, he said to the fruit seller, “Don’t you not know that this is Sahib’s (Lalit Maken’s) house? Pick out the best mangoes and next time bring better quality fruit.” Shindu then passed the bag of mangoes to the woman.

 

During this time, a young man walked across the street to put away some items into Lalit Maken’s car. He was then received a call from the house, “Raju my son, come upstairs” and he made his way back into the house.

 

Just then, Lalit Maken closed the office and the remaining public began to vacate the area. It would look very suspicious had we stayed in our current positions. We had to move, so a quick change in plan was to fulfil this action at Maken’s house. Just as we were about to move off, Lalit Maken and his wife came out and walked towards the car. In doing so, we pulled out the sten gun and pistols and took action. Lalit Maken was greeted with bullets, his wife fell and lay over him by which she too got killed. There was a third, a Congress leader stood just in front of the house. He too was shot and killed by brother Heera. The four of us then sped away on the two scooters.

 

As we rode our scooters, I said to brother Shindu, “Ride your scooter calmly, Waheguru has blessed us. There is nothing to worry about, no one will know. Ride your scooter calmly.”

 

Then I and brother Heera took all the weapons from them and rode away down a separate alley. We travelled near Babbu’s house and parked the scooter in a nearby alley, leaving the sten gun in its storage compartment.

 

I then executed another plan. I knew at some point Rajiv Gandhi would attend the hospital where Lalit Maken was taken for his post-mortem as they were very close to each other. If that was the case, then I wanted to be there ready with my pistol to serve him justice too. Brother Heera went back to Tagore Gardens and I made my way to the hospital.

 

There, Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh appeared. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to them both. By evening, I then returned back to Tagore Gardens to join the others and told them what happened.

 

If I had managed to get to Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh, I would have killed them both and no doubt I would then have attained martyrdom.

 

Following this entire action, brother Shindu and brother Kuki went back to Punjab…”