35 years after Sikh man Baljit Singh disappeared from police custody, ex-Punjab cop Kashmir Singh gets five years’ rigorous imprisonment; Read what the judgment says
· OpIndia
Thirty-five years after Sikh man Baljit Singh disappeared from the custody of Chabal Police Station in Punjab, a special CBI court in Mohali sentenced former Punjab Police constable Kashmir Singh to five years of rigorous imprisonment.
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The other accused in the case, then SHO Suba Singh, Ravel Singh and Dalbir Singh, were convicted in 2023. Kashmir Singh was on the run for 15 years before being arrested in 2025. Special Judicial Magistrate Karanvir Singh Maju convicted Kashmir Singh of criminal conspiracy, abduction, wrongful confinement and causing hurt to extract information.
Kashmir Singh, who is now 56 years old, received five years under the relevant sections of the IPC. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 and rejected his request for probation.
What the case is about
The case stemmed from the custodial disappearance of Baljit Singh, a resident of Mallowal Santa village in Tarn Taran district, Punjab. According to the judgment accessed by OpIndia, on 7th August 1991, Baljit and his brother Paramjit Singh travelled by bus to Chabal to purchase manure. When they got down at Chabal bus stand at around 10 am, a team from Chabal Police Station arrived in an unnumbered blue Maruti Gypsy.
Paramjit informed the court that the vehicle was driven by police official Ravel Singh. Then SHO Suba Singh, Dalbir Singh, Kashmir Singh and two other police personnel were inside the Gypsy. He said Suba Singh caught Baljit by the neck and forced him into the Gypsy. Baljit was then taken to Chabal Police Station.
A witness identified as Anoop Singh, who later became the sarpanch of Kambo village, informed the court that he saw police personnel take Baljit into custody and later informed his family.
No formal arrest was recorded. During the investigation, the CBI found that Baljit was neither accused nor wanted in any case. The prosecution said the police detained Baljit over allegations of snatching a woman’s earrings at the bus stand and to extract the names of militants possessing firearms.
Baljit remained in illegal custody for ten days
According to the prosecution, Baljit was kept in the lock-up at Chabal Police Station from 7th August to 16th August 1991. He was never produced before a court, and his detention was not entered in official records.
Baljit’s father, Hari Singh, and brothers, Paramjit, Gurbhag and Dilbagh, repeatedly visited the police station. They brought him food, tea and clothes. Villagers accompanied them on several occasions, but they were never allowed inside the police station. Only Baljit’s father and close relatives were allowed to meet him.
At that time, Baljit’s brother Gurbhag Singh was serving as a Lance Naik in the Indian Army. He was stationed at Pathankot. After learning about the detention, he took leave and returned home. He met Baljit at the police station between 9th and 11th August. SHO Suba Singh told him that Baljit had been detained only for questioning and would be released soon.
On 15th August, Bassan Singh, the brother of Baljit’s wife, accompanied Paramjit to the police station and saw Baljit in the lock-up. Bassan said Baljit asked the family to get him released. It was the last time he saw him.
Relatives said he was tortured in custody
According to Baljit’s relatives, there were visible injuries on his body. Dilbagh Singh informed the court that there were injury marks on his brother’s body and that police personnel had severely beaten him. According to the prosecution, the police personnel tortured Baljit to force him to confess to the earrings-snatching incident and provide information about militants. Surjit Singh alias Fauji, another man reportedly detained illegally at the station, had also stated that Baljit was among the detainees and was beaten by police officials.
According to the CBI, the station had two lock-ups, and there were 20 to 25 people in each of them. Shingara Singh, who was legally arrested in a separate Arms Act and TADA case on 16th August 1991, also spoke about the large number of detainees.
Paramjit said Baljit feared that the policemen would take him out of the station and kill him. The family, however, continued to rely on assurances that he would be released after questioning.
Baljit disappeared on 17th August
When Paramjit went to the police station on 17th August, he did not find Baljit in the lock-up. When the family asked about him, SHO Suba Singh categorically denied detaining Baljit Singh. His reply raised alarm, as several relatives had met Baljit during the preceding ten days.
Surjit Singh said in a statement that Suba Singh and other officials took Baljit away one day and that he was not seen again. Despite repeated efforts by the family, Baljit’s whereabouts were never established.
The family also said police officials tried to stop them from pursuing the case. Paramjit was detained several times in 1991 and 1992. He said he was interrogated and tortured by Suba Singh, Dalbir Singh, Ravel Singh and Kashmir Singh. He was released after Army authorities intervened.
Army officer wrote to the authorities
As Gurbhag Singh was serving with the 22 Punjab Regiment, he approached his Commanding Officer, Colonel Ravinder Singh, for help. The officer wrote several letters to military, police and civil authorities to trace Baljit.
The court record included communications dated 27th August, 11th September, 31st October and 14th November 1991. The Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar also wrote to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Tarn Taran, on 18th November. Another communication followed in January 1992.
None of the communications produced any information. Years later, the CBI published Baljit’s photograph in The Tribune on 12th February 2007 and Jalandhar Kesari on 14th February. No lead was received.
Baljit’s wife moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court
When Baljit’s family failed to trace him, his wife, Balbir Kaur, filed a Criminal Writ Petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1996. She sought a writ of habeas corpus for the production of her husband.
The petition named senior government and police officials, as well as Suba Singh, Dalbir Singh, Ravel Singh and Kashmir Singh. It said the policemen took Baljit from Chabal bus stand, kept him at the police station for ten days and later denied having detained him.
On 6th April 2005, nine years after the petition was filed, the High Court directed the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Amritsar to inquire whether Baljit had been taken away by Suba Singh and Dalbir Singh on 7th August 1991.
The CJM submitted the inquiry report on 14th December 2005. The High Court did not accept it. On 27th January 2006, it entrusted the investigation to the CBI.
What the CBI investigation found
Acting on the High Court’s directions, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case on 20th March 2006. It recorded statements from Baljit’s relatives, villagers, former detainees, Army officers and police officials. It also obtained the writ petition, the CJM inquiry report, police posting records and the letters sent by Army and civil authorities.
The agency concluded that Baljit had been picked up from the bus stand, illegally confined for ten days and tortured to extract a confession and information. His arrest was never recorded, and there was no case in which he was either an accused or a wanted person.
The CBI found that Suba Singh was the SHO and Dalbir Singh was serving as the additional SHO at Chabal Police Station. On 26th April 2007, it filed a charge sheet against them under Sections 120-B, 365, 344 and 330 of the IPC.
Kashmir Singh and Ravel Singh were not charge-sheeted initially. The investigating officer said Kashmir’s identity could not be firmly established because no Head Constable by that name appeared in the posting record. Paramjit had read the name on the policeman’s uniform but did not personally know him.
Evidence recorded during the trial, however, placed Ravel Singh and Kashmir Singh at the scene. On 19th November 2009, the court summoned both as additional accused under Section 319 of the CrPC.
Three former policemen convicted in 2023
Ravel Singh appeared and faced trial with Suba Singh and Dalbir Singh. On 29th March 2023, the special CBI court convicted all three of criminal conspiracy, abduction, wrongful confinement and causing hurt to obtain information. They were sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment.
The court found that Baljit was abducted from the bus stand, confined without authority and beaten to extract information. It held that the policemen acted in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.
Balbir Kaur did not live to see the conviction. She died on 6th May 2022, nearly a year before the judgment.
Role of Kashmir Singh
The prosecution said Kashmir Singh was part of the police team that took Baljit away. Paramjit identified him in court as one of the policemen sitting in the Gypsy when Suba Singh caught Baljit and forced him into the vehicle.
Baljit’s brothers also placed Kashmir at Chabal Police Station during the illegal detention. Gurbhag said Kashmir and other policemen told the family that Baljit had been kept only for questioning and would soon be released. Dilbagh said he saw Kashmir at the station while visiting Baljit with food and clothes.
The prosecution also produced official posting records. Former police officer Manmohan Singh proved a list showing that Constable Kashmir Singh, belt number 3956/TT, was posted at Chabal Police Station in August 1991. The record said he was dismissed from service in October 2005.
The court noted that the CBI’s initial uncertainty arose partly because the allegations referred to a Head Constable, while the posting record showed a Constable named Kashmir Singh. It held that the witnesses’ identifications and the official record established his identity and involvement.
Kashmir Singh remained a proclaimed offender for over 15 years
After being summoned in November 2009, Kashmir Singh failed to appear. Non-bailable warrants could not be executed. His father told the serving constable that Kashmir was no longer living at the address given to the court.
He was declared a proclaimed offender on 21st July 2010. He neither challenged the summoning order nor the order declaring him a proclaimed offender, and he did not surrender.
The CBI arrested him on 12th November 2025 and produced him before the court the same day. He remained in judicial custody. Charges were framed against him on 2nd March 2026, and a separate trial followed.
Court rejects Kashmir Singh’s defence
The CBI examined 12 witnesses. Kashmir denied the charges and argued that the agency had not included him in the original charge sheet. His lawyer also questioned the witness identifications and the absence of a test identification parade.
The court rejected the objection over the test identification parade. It said Kashmir had not joined the investigation, had remained a proclaimed offender throughout the earlier trial and had appeared only after his arrest. He also failed to disprove the official posting record or show that his belt number was different from 3956/TT. The defence closed its evidence without examining a witness.
Court refuses leniency
During arguments on the sentence, Kashmir sought leniency. He said he was a first-time offender with no previous criminal record and asked to be released on probation.
The CBI opposed the request. It said Baljit’s disappearance left his dependent wife and four minor children without their breadwinner. It argued that Kashmir was a police official entrusted with protecting citizens but participated in the illegal detention and torture of a man who then disappeared.
The court described the acts as barbaric and held that a lenient sentence would adversely affect society. It sentenced Kashmir to five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 365, three years under Section 344, three years under Section 330 and two years for conspiracy. All sentences will run concurrently. The period already spent in custody will be set off against the sentence.
Punjab was battling a brutal Khalistani insurgency when Baljit Singh disappeared
Baljit Singh’s custodial disappearance took place at a time when Punjab was passing through one of the bloodiest periods in its history. Khalistani terrorist organisations were carrying out assassinations, bombings and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, police personnel, journalists, political leaders and those who publicly opposed separatism. Hindu passengers were frequently singled out on buses and trains, while Sikhs who resisted the terrorists or supported the Indian state were also murdered. The violence was aimed not only at spreading fear but also at creating a communal divide between Hindus and Sikhs.
One of the prominent early victims was veteran journalist and Hind Samachar Group founder Lala Jagat Narain, an outspoken critic of Khalistani separatism. He was shot dead near Ludhiana on 9th September 1981. Less than three years later, on 12th May 1984, terrorists murdered his son, Ramesh Chander, who had continued the newspaper group’s campaign against militancy. He was returning from an event when gunmen opened fire on him at a busy junction in Jalandhar. Several other editors, employees, newspaper hawkers and agents associated with the group were also targeted during the insurgency.
Public transport became a recurring target. In October 1983, terrorists stopped a bus near Dhilwan, separated six Hindu passengers from the others and shot them dead. In November 1986, gunmen forced Hindu passengers out of a bus in Punjab and killed 24 of them with automatic weapons. On 6th July 1987, armed terrorists intercepted a Haryana Roadways bus travelling from Chandigarh to Rishikesh near Lalru. They fired from both ends of the vehicle, killing 38 passengers, including women and children, and injuring over 30 others. The bus was carrying Hindu pilgrims, though available records describe their destination as Rishikesh, not Vaishno Devi.
On 25th June 1989, terrorists attacked an RSS shakha at Jawahar Lal Nehru Park in Moga. Twenty-one RSS workers were gunned down during the morning gathering. A couple and two police personnel were killed when a bomb planted at the park exploded afterwards, taking the toll to 25. The Punjab government’s official Moga district website records that another 31 people were injured. The attack was designed to provoke communal retaliation, but the RSS resumed its shakha at the same location the following day.
Months later, terrorists entered the hostel of Thapar Engineering College in Patiala during a youth festival. On the intervening night of 10th and 11th November 1989, they opened fire on students sleeping in two rooms. Nineteen students from educational institutions in Kurukshetra and Kanpur were killed, and five others were injured. The victims had travelled to Punjab only to participate in the festival.
The following year witnessed the Abohar Goli Kand. On the evening of 7th March 1990, armed terrorists entered the crowded Sadar Bazaar in the border town of Abohar and fired indiscriminately at shoppers and traders. Initial reports said 22 people were killed and more than 40 were injured. Later accounts placed the death toll at 32 after several of the injured died in hospital. The attack turned an ordinary market into a scene of mass killing within minutes.
The situation remained equally grim in 1991, the year Baljit Singh disappeared. On 15th June, terrorists stopped two passenger trains near Ludhiana and opened fire inside the compartments. An official Union Home Ministry compilation records 74 deaths in the two train attacks, while contemporary media reports gave higher figures. On 26th December that year, terrorists struck another passenger train travelling from Ludhiana towards Ferozepur. They fired at passengers believed to be Hindus, killing 49 people.
Political leaders, police personnel and public officials were also under constant threat. Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, whose government had overseen the campaign that brought the insurgency under control, was assassinated in a suicide bombing outside the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on 31st August 1995. Court records state that 17 people, including Beant Singh, were killed in the explosion.
This was the violent environment in which the police were operating when Baljit Singh was picked up in August 1991. The scale of terrorist violence explains the extraordinary pressure on Punjab Police and the security apparatus during the period. It does not, however, legalise an unrecorded arrest, custodial torture or the disappearance of a person who was neither wanted nor accused in any case.