MAHLANWALA: An activist of the CPI (ML) and Kirti Kisan Union, Tarlok Singh was allegedly shot dead by police in Mahlan wala village recently. The policemen Sukhdev Singh, Palwinder Singh and Kulwinder Singh, all constables allegedly responsible for this murder were formally arrested following registration of a murder case against them while the other five have been transferred to the police lines.

Villagers told visiting newsmen, that the only fault of Tarlok Singh was that he dared to question the alleged highhandedness of the police.

The DSP, Majitha, Raj Kumar, told the villagers who not allowed the body of the Kisan leader to be lifted unless a case under Section 302 IPC was registered against the guilty police personnel, said in the presence of newsmen that besides arrest and transfer to lines of policemen the entire police force manning a picket in the village was being replaced. Efforts would be made, he added, to replace the police force with the CRPF,

Hardeep Singh, a son of the deceased said that he and his father were taking meals when the police personnel asked his father to accompany them to village police chowki. On opening the door his father was dragged outside and fired upon indiscriminately killing him on the spot, Hardip Singh said. At once he informed his neighbors about the killing of his father. The policemen escaped soon after killing his father, Hardip Singh said.

The irate villagers foiled the attempts of the police to lift the body when a police force went there at 1:30 a.m. in the night.

The police control room had earlier given information to the press that Tarlok Singh was a militant and was killed in an inter gang rivalry.

Meanwhile, senior Kisan and CPI-ML leaders addressed a rally in the village.

Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal, president Kirti Kisan Union and Amritsar, addressing the villages said, both the “police terronsm and militancy had made the common man’s life hell, The killing of Tarlok Singh was the result of the “state terrorism and unlimited powers to the police.” Dhaliwal said that the body would be allowed to be taken only after the assurance was given that the family would get Rs two lakh as compensation as given to the militants’ victim families.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1992