In February 1986 The INDIAN EXPRESS published excerpts of the Bains Commission report. According to the report the commission investigated 35 cases. In all these cases according to the Police reports the accused were killed in encounters between armed Sikhs and security forces in the Punjab. Although the accused were always killed no security force persons were ever killed or injured. The commission thoroughly investigated all the 35 cases and found that all of them were fake encounters. The accused had either died in police custody due to torture during the investigation or they were killed after severe torture.
In addition to these encounter killings the commission investigated several other cases where police had registered false cases against Sikhs, particularly against the Sikh students including a case against Mr. Ranjit Singh Gill, a graduate student at Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, and Mr. Sukhminder Singh Sandhu, a graduate student at Government College, Ludhiana. The police charged both these students for assault on Mr. A.P. Pandey’s life. The commission found that Mr. Gill and Mr. Sandhu were falsely implicated in Mr. A.P. Pandey’s assault case. In spite of the commission’s clear findings and recommendations, the assault case against them was never withdrawn.
