DSP Dilbagh Singh

Dilbagh Singh was a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) at Tarn Taran in the early 1990s. He is known from Reduced to Ashes (2003), the report of the Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP), which names him in several families' accounts of 1993. Everything below is what those families told the CCDP, or what the book says the CBI did. The book reports no verdict on him and said in 2003 that the main case against him was still pending for trial. It also names other men called Dilbagh Singh, among them an ASI at Jhabal police station, so the name alone should not be read as this officer.

Key moments, each as the families gave it to the CCDP:

• 5 April 1993: three boys from Deoo village, taken into custody on 31 March, were killed in what the book calls "an elaborately orchestrated encounter" near Bhullar bridge. The book says DSP Dilbagh Singh, SHO Pooran Singh of Tarn Taran Sadar police station and sub-inspector Mohinder Singh "claimed to have led the encounter". One boy's family says the DSP had promised them the boys would be released once their injuries healed.
• 22 June 1993: according to the family of Gulshan Kumar, a police force led by DSP Dilbagh Singh and SHO Gurbachan Singh Manochahal of Tarn Taran City police station raided their house at about 10.30 p.m., beat the men and took Gulshan, his father and his brothers to the police station. About a week later, they say, the DSP demanded Rs 200,000 for Gulshan's release. On 24 July, after Gulshan had been reported killed, the DSP and the SHO told his father to keep his mouth shut and threatened to eliminate the family in the same way if they complained.
• 14 August 1993: according to the family of Harmesh Kumar and Badri Nath, a police force led by SP (operations) Khubi Ram and including DSP Dilbagh Singh raided their house in Tarn Taran. After six days of torture, the book says, the DSP locked the brothers in a constable's quarters within the compound of his office. Badri Nath's friends say the DSP demanded Rs 200,000 and threatened to kill him if it was not paid within a week; he was released about 15 September after payment. His brother Harmesh Kumar had disappeared.
• After 8 August 1996: the CBI asked families of the disappeared to file complaints that day. The book says it investigated Gulshan Kumar's case, found the police officers prima facie guilty of the abduction and extra-judicial killing, and filed a charge sheet against DSP Dilbagh Singh, SHO Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, SI Balbir Singh, ASI Devinder Singh and ASI Arjan Singh. The case was "still pending for trial" in 2003.

The SHO named with him is a police officer. The book uses the same name elsewhere (p. 348) for a Kharku leader, so the two are not to be confused.

What he is remembered for: he appears in the record chiefly as the DSP whom Gulshan Kumar's family names and whom the CBI charge-sheeted in that case.