Bhai Shamsher Singh

Shamsher Singh is one of the men convicted in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, and one of the Bandi Singhs. The Tribune described him as a truck operator from Patiala district and a co-conspirator who, with Jagtar Singh Hawara, allegedly brought RDX across the border from the Ajnala sector in Amritsar district and moved it to Ropar, where it was hidden. He was arrested in 1995.

Beant Singh was killed by a human bomb outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on 31 August 1995. A special court at Burail Jail convicted him, with Lakhwinder Singh Lakha and Gurmeet Singh, of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy on 31 July 2007. The Tribune reported that the special CBI court sentenced Shamsher Singh to life imprisonment on 1 August 2007, and that a Division Bench of the High Court later found him, Lakhwinder Singh Lakha and Gurmeet Singh to be "merely pawns" of Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara, giving only logistic support.

Key moments

• Since 2013: regular parole twice a year, with Lakha, Gurmeet Singh, Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Gurdeep Singh Khera (the Tribune).
• January 2023: the High Court ordered regular bail for life convicts who had completed their sentences while decisions on permanent release were pending.
• July 2023: the Tribune reported that the Superintendent of Model Jail, Chandigarh, put his time served at 27 years, 6 months and 18 days as on 8 July. On 20 July the Chief Judicial Magistrate gave the Chandigarh Administration two months to decide on his early release.
• 20 September 2023: bail on a bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties. His family undertook to return him to jail if the government rejected premature release.
• March 2024: the Chandigarh Administration declined his premature release and that of Gurmeet Singh. The court cancelled their bail bonds and issued non-bailable warrants, after the notice sent to Shamsher Singh came back with a report that he had gone outside.
• August 2025: the Tribune listed him among seven convicts in the Beant Singh case still in jail.

Known for: his part in the Beant Singh case as a convicted co-conspirator, and a long record of parole and bail on a High Court order that ended when the Chandigarh Administration refused his release.