Tehelka - The People's Paper

Can Rs 25 lakh bring back the 12 family members whom she lost to the 1984 carnage? Can it bring back even one? Then what good is it, says Darshan Kaur to Ajmer Singh and Etmad A. Khan

Constant Guard: She still gets threats because she didn’t turn hostile
Photo Sharad Saxena

Lubhana had offered me Rs 25 lakh to change my testimony. He asked me to accept the money and withdraw the case against Bhagat. He said, with this money your generations will live comfortably so why take such trouble

Many witnesses turned hostile one after the other, but Darshan Kaur who lost 12 members of her family, including her husband, refused to fall for the lure of money or surrender to the fear of death. In a chilling confession, she tells Tehelka that she had been offered Rs 25 lakh to withdraw her testimony against Congress leader HKL Bhagat. She was offered the money by local Sikh leader, Atma Singh Lubhana, a man who had actually been authorised by the Shaheedgunj Gurdwara Committee to help the Tilak Vihar widows with their court cases. Tilak Vihar in West Delhi is one of the largest colonies that houses the victims of Carnage 1984.

Darshan moved from East Delhi’s Trilokpuri to Raghubir Nagar, Tilak Vihar where she lives under round-the-clock police protection.

Excerpts from the conversation:

During the trials many witnesses were threatened and some turned hostile after accepting money. Could you tell us about your case? We are told that Atma Singh Lubhana offered you money to change your testimony?

At that time we used to live in Trilokpuri and HKL Bhagat was the local mp. I was a witness against him. We had no educated people guiding us about court appearances and no menfolk were spared during the riots. Lubhana appeared on the scene after the riots. None of his family members were killed during the riots. This man used to cycle around then and he now moves in cars whereas we don’t even have a bicycle. Since there were no educated people among us, it was decided in the Shaheedgunj Gurdwara to hand over all these representations to him. Lubhana would accompany all the widows to the Karkardooma courts. When HKL Bhagat came to know of this, he decided to strike a deal with him. Lubhana was instructed to offer money to widows to change their statements. Some of them did but I don’t want to name any of them.

Please give us the details, be frank.

Some widows accepted the money and turned hostile. I neither accepted money nor changed my statement. I lost 12 of my family members and asked them to bring back at least one. I rejected Lubhana’s offer and then started the process of threats. He
attacked me also. Bhagat also engineered attacks against me.

Was the attack at the instance of Bhagat?

Once on my way back, when I had no security, five-six people in a Maruti car waylaid me. They first made enquiries about some address and then tried pulling me inside the car. I started crying and tried to save myself by slapping them and hitting them with my chappals. A traffic constable and some other people came to my rescue and they fled away. After some time, police protection was given to me. This protection is with me for the last 12 years.

Darshan Kaur’s husband and some other relations killed in the anti-Sikh violence of 1984
1 Ram Singh (husband)
2 Gian Singh (brother-in-law)
3 Birju Singh (sister-in-law’s husband)
4 Hukam Singh (brother-in-law)
5 Bhura Singh (sister-in-law’s husband)

Did Atma Singh Lubhana offer you money?

Lubhana had offered me Rs 25 lakh to change my testimony.

He asked me to accept the money and withdraw the case against Bhagat. He said, with this money your generations will live comfortably so why take such trouble. On my refusal, he started abusing me and physically attacked me.

Why did Atma Singh Lubhana beat you up?

He wanted me to accept the money and withdraw from the case. He did not want me to appear as a witness against HKL Bhagat.

That means he asked you to accept Rs 25 lakh and not appear against HKL Bhagat?

Yes, he asked me not to appear as a witness against HKL Bhagat. He said, take Rs 25 lakh and your children and grandchildren will live comfortably. And if you don’t then you will keep running around. He said, either he (Bhagat) or I will kill you. These threats continued and I challenged him to touch me. I am not afraid. I will not retract from my testimony. I told Lubhana to bring back at least one member of my family. Twelve of my family members were killed. Provoked by this, he attacked me.

Is Lubhana still threatening you?

Yes, even now, he is after my life, he threatened me over the phone. He said he would burn me alive.

I told him that I am not afraid of any threats. I challenged him to touch me. He put the phone down and then some women called up and issued threats.

Lubhana was instructed to offer money to widows to change their statements. On my refusal, he physically
attacked me. After some time round-the-clock police protection was given to me

Who were these women?

I don’t know the names of those women who threatened me but I informed the police authorities.

We are told that he gave money to other witnesses also?

He had sold off Anwar Kaur who had initially testified against Sajjan Kumar. When Sajjan Kumar won the election he had gone to congratulate him. Many other Sikhs had accompanied him.

How do you know that Anwar had taken money through Lubhana?

We had invited Anwar Kaur to join our group of widows and then she narrated it to us. After Sajjan Kumar was acquitted, we took out protest processions and then went to the gurdwara where we called Anwar. We asked her why she had turned hostile when we could have got justice for so many of our brothers who had been murdered. We asked her who had incited her and then she told us that it was Atma Singh Lubhana who did all this.

What did she tell you?

She stated that Lubhana had taken her to Sajjan Kumar’s residence. She did not tell us about the money she got but she said Lubhana had struck the deal. She said she got scared and changed her statement.

He (Lubhana) said, either he (Bhagat) or I will kill you. These threats continued and I challenged him to touch me. I am not afraid

Can you tell us when exactly she confessed to you and the others?

This was four-five years ago, when Sajjan Kumar was acquitted. It is then that all the widows confronted Anwar Kaur. She sought forgiveness . In the case of another widow, Satnami Bai, Lubhana signed in a register when a panchayat was organised and admitted that he was instrumental in Satnami turning hostile. He was asked to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh for working against the Sikh Panth, which he did.

Justice Nanavati has let off Bhagat on humanitarian grounds as he is bedridden. What do you have to say on this?

HKL Bhagat should be hanged, even if he is sick. He deserves no mercy as he is a murderer. I had seen him leading the mobs saying, ‘kill all the Sardars, they are snakes’.