We still wake up at night and cry, say brothers of ’84 victim

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 15

The wheels of justice turn slowly and in the case of Jalandhar-based brothers Kuldeep Singh and Sangat Singh, they have taken 34 long years to turn.

“It’s almost as if November 1, 1984 never passed. I still remember the brutality with which they killed my brother using his own kirpan. They charged at us like animals determined to maul. Two of us survived but our youngest brother Hardev was consumed by the fire of revenge in Mahipalpur. We still can’t believe his killers have been brought to justice,” says Kuldeep Singh.

Three decades after the tragedy and several failed attempts at justice later, Delhi’s Patiala House Court yesterday convicted two accused — Yashpal Singh and Naresh Sehrawat — for murdering Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh.

“We want both the accused to hang till death. Nothing else will compensate the loss. We have died a thousand deaths every day. Our statements have been disregarded, our case closed and we have been mocked by the justice system. But the wheels of justice are now turning,” say brothers Kuldeep and Sangat Singh, both witnesses, whose testimonies helped the Special Investigation Team of the Centre prove the guilt of the accused beyond doubt.

The SIT was formed in 2015 to reopen closed cases of the riots.

On several occasions since the trial in the Hardev Singh murder case began, his brothers have lost their composure and cried before the judge. “Their eyes have often turned red while recalling the horrors of the tragedy. The judge has recorded in the order how Kuldeep Singh often broke down in court while remaining consistent with his statements,” says Gurbaksh Singh, the lawyer for the victims.

Speaking to The Tribune, the Singh brothers, who left Delhi in 1985 to settle in Jalandhar, said their fight for justice was not over.  “We still wake up at night and cry.  We can’t rest till the time Congress leader JP Singh, who led the mobs that day, is also convicted. He was tried but was acquitted,” they say.

The current SIT has named JP Singh in the chargesheet as the man who led the communally driven mob along with Naresh Sehrawat. Ironically, JP Singh was acquitted by a Delhi court following a case in 1984 and under the law only the state can appeal against that acquittal. 

In Hardev Singh and Avtar Singh’s murder case, no accused was ever brought to justice until yesterday. The complaint was first filed in 1984. Then the case was reopened in 1993, to be closed again.  “Since it was the Congress government at that time, they never challenged the acquittal of JP Singh. We want that done now,” Kuldeep Singh said, recalling the struggle for justice and also how investigation officers used to simply destroy their testimonials and statements.

No wonder Kuldeep and Sangat Singh today declined the offer of compensation from the court, saying all they wanted was “death for convicts”; this despite the duo working on meager wages in Jalandhar. 

While Kuldeep Singh is a granthi in a local gurdwara, Sangat runs a vegetable shop to make ends meet. Asked why they refused compensation, Kuldeep Singh said, “Yashpal Singh was a friend of Hardev. They went to college together. Naresh Sehrawat used to buy groceries from us. Both betrayed our trust. Both deserve to die. They torched our shops and came for us when we were hiding in the house of Surjit Singh, another witness in the present case. They cut short two vibrant lives. Hardev was not even married.”

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the family of another victim, Avtar Singh, are not known except that one of his brothers recently came all the way from Italy to testify in the matter the SIT began pursuing last year. The SIT is also pursuing two other reopened riot cases. These are pending in Delhi’s Karkardooma and Dwarka courts.

BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who has been helping victims’ families withstand inducements and threats from the accused in riot cases, said the journey to justice was long and arduous. But he sounded hopeful with the SIT securing the first-ever convictions in the reopened cases. As for the families longing for justice, the twin convictions mean their nightmares may just end… but who knows.