Human rights activist killed by Punjab police in 1995
Jaswant Singh Khalra
Jaswant Singh Khalra used municipal cremation records to expose thousands of secret police cremations in Punjab. Police abducted him in September 1995 and killed him that October. Six officers were convicted in 2005.
The cremations
With Jaspal Singh Dhillon of the Akali Dal, he went to cremation grounds in 1994 and early 1995 after families feared to report the disappeared. Municipal records of bodies and firewood showed over 6,000 secret police cremations in one of Punjab's then thirteen districts. Human Rights Watch says this became the basis of a Supreme Court petition in April 1995.[Web]
Abduction and aftermath
Punjab police abducted him on 6 September 1995, kept him for almost two months under torture, and killed him in late October, dumping his body in a canal. Six officers were convicted in November 2005. The government admitted 2,097 illegal cremations in Amritsar. Human Rights Watch said in 2007 that eyewitness testimony implicated the then police chief K. P. S. Gill and that he had not been charged.[Web]