Sarabjit Singh, a Nihang Sikh who was recently arrested for the murder of Lakhbir Singh at the Singhu border, was seen frequenting the deceased’s village of Cheema Kalan in the months preceding the killing, according to at least two residents of the village. One of the residents, who wished to remain anonymous, described Lakhbir’s movements on 12 October, three days before he was killed at the farmer’s protest around Delhi’s Singhu border. The resident said that Lakhbir was seen in a Bolero Camper car with two Nihangs that day—several other residents corroborated this. The resident told me that Sarabjit had been seen driving a Bolero Camper in and around the village on several occasions in the past two to three months. As reported by The Caravan earlier, Lakhbir’s sister, Raj Kaur has consistently maintained that her brother could not have gone to Singhu on his own and that he was lured there by someone. Raj, along with everyone I spoke to in the village, have insisted that Lakhbir was incapable of the sacrilege he was accused of and ostensibly killed for.
Sarabjit took responsibility for the killing and surrendered to the state police on the night of 15 October. The next day, another Nihang Sikh, Narain Singh, was arrested after he surrendered to the police in Amritsar’s Amarkot village. Rakesh Kaushal, the senior superintendent of Amritsar Rural, who arrested Narain, said that the Nihang Sikh claimed not to have witnessed any desecration himself, but had taken Sarabjit’s word for it. Kaushal said that Narain had reached the spot where Sarabjit was assaulting Lakhbir at around 5.30 am on 15 October. Sarabjit and another accused hailed Narain and told him about the alleged desecration, Kaushal said. “Narain Singh told us that by then, Sarabjit had already severed his wrist, and then Narain chopped off his right foot.” According to Kaushal, Narain claimed that he had been “maddened” by the thought of the sacrilege committed, and attacked Lakhbir.
The second Cheema Kalan resident, who also wished to remain anonymous, told me that they had first seen Sarabjit in the village about three months earlier, near the Sarai Amanat Khan police station. “This Baba Ji Sarabjit Singh who courted arrest, we saw this man here in our village. He used to drive somebody’s car.” The resident said that they remembered seeing Sarabjit because the Nihang had chased them in the car he was driving. “We stopped some distance away from the police station when we found him following us. Yesterday, when I was watching this man’s video, I realised, I saw this man in my village driving someone’s car, though I don’t know whose car that was.”
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