Who Was Jaswant Singh Khalra? The Explosive True Story Behind Diljit Dosanjh’s Banned Film Satluj

Diljit Dosanjh is at the centre of the news after Satluj was taken down from the OTT platform ZEE5 on Sunday, July 5, within just 48 hours of being released. The project was in limbo after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) asked the makers for 127 cuts in the film. The filmmakers stood their ground and refused to change, and after 3 years, they quietly released it on OTT on July 3. Satluj has been banned in India owing to its controversial content, which is based on the life of the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.

Born in 1952 in Khalra village in Amritsar district, Jaswant Singh Khalra worked as an employee in a bank in the city in the 1980s before becoming actively involved in human rights work.

Khalra was deeply affected by a series of significant events – Operation Blue Star, the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. In the aftermath of these events, the police were ordered to detain those suspected of terrorism. During this period, many Sikh individuals went missing after being taken by the Punjab Police. As more people disappeared around him, Khalra began to collect information.

During the insurgency period in Punjab, human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was trying to find out details on four major cases of the time — the Behla killings, where security forces allegedly used six innocent local villagers as human shields; the cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies in Punjab; and the killing of over 2,000 police officers who allegedly did not cooperate with counter-terror operations.

According to records from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which were referenced by the Supreme Court, Khalra uncovered files from the municipal corporation of Amritsar during his search for missing individuals. These documents contained the names, ages, and addresses of thousands of people who were allegedly killed and illegally cremated by the police. Further investigation revealed additional cases in three other districts in Punjab, significantly increasing the number of victims.

In September 1995, Khalra was last seen washing his car in front of his house in Amritsar before he disappeared, as per the Khalis Foundation. The following year, the CBI found evidence that he was held at a police station in Tarn Taran. The agency recommended the prosecution of nine Punjab Police officials for kidnapping and murder of Khalra.

For ten years, those accused of Khalra’s murder were not charged. On October 16, 2007, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, chaired by Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and A N Jindal, extended the sentence to life imprisonment for the other four accused – Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh (all former sub-inspectors) and Prithipal Singh (former head constable).

Khalra is survived by his wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, and their two children, Navkiran Kaur and Janmeet Singh.

Also Read: Diljit Dosanjh Breaks Silence On Satluj Being Removed From ZEE5 India, Says ‘I Challenge The Darkeness’