Shaheed Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini alias Advocate 

 

A Shaheed Advocate, Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini was born on 17th June 1958, in village Budha Bhora, district Ropar. Bhai Saini passed his Metric at Gandhi Memorial Higher Secondary School of Ropar, then in 1981, he enrolled for graduation at Khalsa College of Anandpur Sahib. Bhai Saini then got his law degree from Gwalior and then got an additional diploma in Business Management at Agriculture University in Ludhiana. In 1987, Bhai Saini had started practicing law in the courts of Ropar under the guidance of Advocate Sarabjit Singh Bains and Advocate Santokh Singh Gill. 

 

This was the time when the Punjab police were trying to gain control by targeting the Jhujaru Singhs and their families. When human rights organisations or Sikh organisations in Punjab raised their voices against this injustice, the police fearlessly arrested them also in broad daylight. There was no trace of the people who were being arrested by the police. Advocate Bhatti from Sangrur, Advocate Jagwinder Singh Happy from Kapurthala, journalist Ram Singh Biling are prominent examples.

 

Kulwant Singh’s Anand Karaj with Bibi Amarjit Kaur took place on 29th May 1988. Their son, Karanbir Singh was born on 11th October 1991. On 25th January 1993, was the day when disaster struck the family when Kulwant Singh Saini and his wife Amarjit Kaur and their 16-month-old child, Karanbir Singh became victims of Indian government’s terrorism. Many heinous examples of Indian government and its security force’s atrocities are found during the Sikh struggle in Punjab, but the murder of Advocate Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini of Ropar and his wife, Bibi Amarjit Kaur and their 16-month-old son is such an example that people are shocked to read and hear. In Punjab police custody, the tyrants humiliated Advocate Kulwant Singh Saini, his wife, Bibi Amarjit Kaur and the child and killed them after committing extreme atrocities. Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini’s only fault was that he used to pursue the cases of the victims of police brutality, due to which he was thorn in the eyes of Punjab Police Chief KPS Gill and Ropar Police.

 

According to a report by human rights organisations, Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini was killed by Ropar Police on the orders of KPS Gill. According to sources, after arresting Bhai Kulwant Singh, he was asked to withdraw from fighting the cases of the victims of police brutality, but Bhai Kulwant Singh refused to withdraw and remained steadfast in his duties, pursuing justice for the victims. 

 

According to human rights organisations and the family, Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini, his wife and child were arrested on 5th January 1993 from near Ropar police station. Bhai Saini was on his way to Ropar police station to process the bails of a woman by the name of Bibi Manjit Kaur and her son, residents of village Budha Bhora. They had been arrested by the police a few days earlier. When Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini called DSP Jaspal Singh, the DSP assured him that Bibi Manjit Kaur and her son would be released. SHO of Ropar told Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini that he should come to the police station and take both of them (mother-son). Bhai Kulwant Singh went to the police station with his wife and son to pick Bibi Manjit Kaur and her son up, but never returned.

 

On 27th January 1993, the Ropar Bar Association went on strike demanding a judicial inquiry into the Bhai Saini and his family. Lawyers from the Punjab-Haryana High Court also joined the strike. DIG Sanjeev Gupta, covering up the crimes of the police, held a press conference and said’ “Kulwant Singh Saini and his family were abducted and killed by two militants on 28th January 1993 and their bodies were thrown into the Bhakra Canal.” Sanjeev Gupta also named two youths in this case and that they had confessed to the crime. The father Bhai Kulwant Singh, Sardar Jagir Singh told human rights organisations that the DIG of Ludhiana, Chandar Shekhar told him on 5th February 1993, that his son and family were in police custody. Denying the story of the abduction from the Sikh Jhujarus, Chandar Shekhar said that the youth who is being implicated in the abduction conspiracy was Harpreet Singh of Bagarpur village. The village Panchayat had presented the youth from Bagarpur village to the police station a week before the disappearance of Bhai Saini and his family.

 

On 2nd March 1993, the lawyers of Punjab Haryana High Court and Chandigarh protested against the Punjab government demanding a judicial inquiry. In the courtyard of the High Court, the lawyers demanded the registration of a case against the policemen who killed Bhai Saini and his family. When the delegation of lawyers met Chief Minister Beant Singh (Butcher) and demanded an inquiry, Beant Singh replied with great arrogance that KPS Gill is saying that there is no need for a judicial inquiry. The lawyers’ strike lasted for three months but the government remained silent, because it was under the patronage of the government that Bhai Kulwant Singh and his family were martyred.

 

The sad aspect during this whole time was that the Chief Justice of the Punjab Haryana High Court became a silent spectator. What justice would he give to Bhai Saini and his family, he could not even say two lines of sympathy. What more heinous example of the perversion of Indian democratic governance can there be that a lawyer of the court, his wife and their 16-month-old child are brutally murdered by the police. The institution of justice like the High Court remained silent and watched the spectacle. Lawyers of the Punjab-Haryana High Court remained on strike for three months, yet the Chief Justice did not utter a single word against the injustice, what expectation of justice can be kept by the common man?

 

When Ropar Police was torturing Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini, a police officer hung his 16-month-old son upside down in front of his eyes so that Bhai Saini could be shaken from his path of pursuing justice. The child was then thrown down from the roof of the police station. As soon as he fell, the child died. Advocate Kulwant Singh Saini’s wife witnessed this tragedy. It is said that Bibi Amarjit Kaur screamed for mercy in the police station but her voice was also silenced because now it was the turn of the advocate and his wife. Both were subjected to immense torture and then their bodies were disappeared. Shaheed Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini, his wife Shaheed Bibi Amarjit Kaur and their 16 months old son, Shaheed Bhujangi Karanbir Singh were murdered by those who had taken an oath of the Indian constitution and the 3 bodies were disposed of and their car was thrown into the Bhakra Canal. The Punjab police also fabricated the story of the murder of Bhai Kulwant Singh Saini and his family. The murder was blamed on two youths but the public knew this was not the truth. Many commissions have sat but no real justice have been served under the Indian justice system. JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED!

 

Tavareekh Shaheed-E-Khalistan 2 – Ranjit Singh Damdami Taksal