Darbara Singh

Darbara Singh (1952 – 6 June 2018) was an Indian serial killer who was convicted of two murders.

During April–October 2004, 23 children of non-Punjabi migrants were kidnapped in the Jalandhar city of Punjab, India. Many of these children were sexually assaulted, and 17 of them were killed. In October, the police apprehended Darbara Singh, who had earlier been jailed for nearly a decade in another case involving sexual assault and attempted murder of a child. Singh allegedly confessed that he was behind all these abductions, sexual assaults and murders in 2004. He was convicted of two of the murders, and sentenced to life in prison. He was also convicted of two more murders; in this case, he had led the police to dead bodies after his arrest. He was given a death sentence in this case, but was later acquitted by the High Court because of insufficient evidence. He was also acquitted in four more cases because of insufficient evidence. He died in 2018, while serving a life sentence, with some of the cases pending trial.

Early life

Darbara Singh was a native of Jallupur Khera village of Amritsar district. Singh had three children; his wife expelled him from their house, because of his "bad habits".

After his release, he came to Jalandhar, where he started working in a factory in the Leather Complex area. He lived in a rented room in the Model House locality. To take his 'revenge' against the migrants, he started targeting their children. Name Gender Age Residence 1 Manju F 8 Ram Lila Grounds 2 Lashki F 8 Basti Sheikh 3 Bittu M 7 Nari Niketan area 4 Vikas alias Mani M 13 Bhargo Nagar 5 Lashmi F 9 Ram Nagar 6 Bisjeet (brother of Lashmi) M 8 Ram Nagar

Some of the above-mentioned cases are described in detail below:

On 18 April 2004, Diksha and her sister Asha were playing with their two cousins at Company Bagh. There, Darbara Singh promised to buy them a shuttlecock and a racket, and took them to the bank of a canal near Rayyia. There, he made Asha sit on one side of the canal. He took Diksha behind the bushes and raped her. A frightened Asha ran away from the place, while Diksha was killed. Meanwhile, when the two girls did not return for a long time, their cousins returned home and informed the family. The family searched for the girls and then registered a missing persons complaint. Later, a man named Malkiat Singh found Asha in Fazilpur village in Tarn Taran district. He gave her biscuits and medicines and then brought her to the Khadoor Sahib police station. The police control room then informed the Jalandhar police station that a girl named Ashu had been found in Tarn Taran. Later, the police found Diksha's naked dead body lying on a big stone near Bahadurpur Uppal canal. A post-mortem conducted on 21 April revealed that she had died because of "neurogenic shock as a result of injuries to private part".

On 22 August 2004, Tazbin and her sister Mumtaz were playing outside, when Darbara enticed them with some sweets and an empty bottle. Singh told them that they could fetch good money by selling the bottle. He then seated both the girls on his bicycle, but Mumtaaz refused to go along. After a week, Tazbin's body was found in bushes in Chaheru village on the Jalandhar-Phagwara Road. The body was found lying in a mutilated condition. She had been sexually assaulted. The police had to declare the body as unclaimed and it was accordingly cremated at Phagwara.

On 25 October 2004, Darbara Singh killed Khursheed, the son of a migrant from Darbhanga district, Bihar. Khursheed and his cousin Ronku were playing near their house, in the afternoon. When they did not return home, the family searched for them for two days, and then registered a missing persons complaint. After his arrest, Singh led the police to a place near Kadianwali village, from where the police recovered the bodies of Khursheed and his cousin Ronku. The post-mortem showed that both Khursheed and Roku had been sexually assaulted: there were ruptures on their private parts. While the body of Khursheed had clothes on, Ronku's body was naked and his throat had been slit. Singh was acquitted in the case because of insufficient evidence.

Arrest

By September 2004, panic had spread among the local residents. In the preceding 4 months, 14 children had been kidnapped with no ransom demands, and 10 of them were still missing. The chopped arm of a child was found near Variana, and the partly decomposed body of a 10-year-old girl was found in Chaheru. The police were looking for a middle-aged bicyclist who was likely mentally challenged. When the police party intercepted him near Bastian, Singh threw away his bicycle and tried to run away. The police apprehended and questioned him, following which he confessed his crimes.

After his arrest, Darbara Singh showed no remorse, even when he was taken to the sites where he had dumped the dead bodies. He told the police that he could have killed more children if he had not been arrested "so soon". He said that he had no remorse for killing the children of migrant labourers, as they were instrumental in sending him to jail. He also added that he targeted a Punjabi girl by mistake, and had to kill her because "she could have created problems" for him; he said that he was "a bit shaken" by this. He contradicted himself, by first saying, "I still think whatever I did was right and it was the demand of the time", but then adding "I think what was done by me was wrong and I promise that I would never do it again."

On 7 January 2008, Judge Iqbal Singh Bajwa gave him a death sentence for the murders of Khursheed and Ronku in 2004. On 9 January, he was shifted from Jalandhar jail to the Patiala Central Jail for hanging.

In April 2008, Singh was tried for raping and killing 8-year-old Diskha on 18 April 2004. Her sister Asha and her two cousins identified Singh in the court. Singh's counsel claimed that he had been falsely implicated, and based his defence on the premise that the children were tutored witnesses.

On 30 July 2009, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Jitendra Chauhan of the Punjab and Haryana High Court reversed the death sentence given to Darbara Singh for the murders of Khursheed and Ronku. Citing insufficient evidence, the Court acquitted Darbara Singh, giving the benefit of the doubt. In February 2010, the Punjab government moved the Supreme Court, calling the High Court's decision as "wholly erroneous".

On 10 December 2010, Judge B.S. Sandhu acquitted him in the Tazbin rape and murder case, because of insufficient evidence.

Darbara Singh was also convicted of kidnapping and causing life-threatening injury to Nishu. Nishu could not speak because of the throat injury, but she used expressions to identify Darbara Singh as her kidnapper and attacker. Guddi, a neighbour of Nishu, also testified that she had seen Darbara Singh standing with his bicycle in the area where the children were playing. Another man, Sham Lal, testified that he had seen Darbara Singh taking a young girl on the carrier of his bicycle in Isharwal village. Singh appealed against the conviction in the High Court, but his appeal was rejected. and was moved from the prison to the Government Rajindra hospital in Patiala on 2 June. There, he died on 6 June; his family refused to claim his body, calling his crimes "unpardonable".