ZEE5’s film Satluj, inspired by human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and starring Diljit Dosanjh, revisits Punjab’s insurgency era and alleged extrajudicial killings of Sikhs. Khalra’s investigation into thousands of secret cremations exposed state and police abuses, led to his 1995 disappearance, and sparked a long censorship battle that delayed and briefly removed the film.
INSPIRED BY THE REAL LIFE INCIDENTS of one Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist, ZEE5’s latest film “Satluj” starring Diljit Dosanjh faced a three-year release delay over a long censorship battle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Previously titled Panjab 95, and before that Ghalugara, the Honey Trehan-directorial depicts the extrajudicial killings and unceremonious buryings of Sikhs during the insurgency period in Punjab. Satluj was removed from the streaming platform a mere 48 hours after it was released.
Who exactly was Jaswant Singh Kalra, and why was his story so controversial that the movie based upon his activism became the subject of the intense debate with the CBFC, and was even removed from the streaming platform? Let us take you down a historic memory lane, one that marks one of the darkest periods of human-rights violation and state-mandated crime in Indian history.
During the militancy period in Punjab in the 1970s that lasted till the 90s, Jaswant Singh Khalra worked as a bank director in the state’s capital city, Amritsar.
Following Operation Blue Star (1984) initiated by the then-Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi, anti-Sikh sentiments were at an all-time high. Gandhi’s assassination and the anti-Sikh riots worsened the situation, and police officials were directed to detain individuals who were found suspicious, ostensibly as ‘terrorists.’
At that time, police officers allegedly killed unarmed suspects in staged shootouts, and burned up thousands of bodies in an unceremonious manner to cover up their crimes. Families stated their relatives had gone missing after being picked up by the Punjab police.
Amidst the growing cases of people going suspiciously missing and rumors of extrajudicial killings being done by Punjab Police, Jaswant Singh started conducting an investigation into this matter and began gathering evidence. His colleague at the bank, Piara Singh, was arrested by the Punjab police in 1992 and killed in an encounter. He also learned that Piara Singh’s last rites were done in an unceremonious manner, that too without the presence of his family, prompting Jaswant to commence his investigation.
His investigation led him to uncover secret records located at Amritsar’s municipal corporation office. Reportedly, Jaswant found several documents listing the names, ages, and addresses of thousands of people who had allegedly been killed and cremated by the police without their families being informed. Further probe led to him discovering similar cases of murder and cover-ups being done in three other districts of the state.
His investigation spanned multiple high-profile murder cases, such as the custodial killing of Behla, the human-shield case concerning the death of seven civilians, the cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies in Punjab, and that police had killed about 2,000 police officers that refused to partake in counter-terror operations.
Jaswant publicly alleged that the Punjab Police and the State were involved in the illegal killing of over 25,000 Sikhs, and also unceremoniously cremating their dead bodies to conceal their crimes by the state. His investigations and findings established him as one of the prominent human rights activists in Punjab and in the country.
It was clear that some people did not take too kindly to Jaswant exposing a major government-mandated crime scandal. In 1995, Jaswant was washing his car outside his house, and that was the last time anyone ever saw him. He was allegedly abducted by personnel of Punjab Police and taken to Jhabal Police Station, a claim that police officials denied despite multiple witness statements.
The next year, in 1996, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found evidence that Jaswant had been held at a police station in Tarn Taran province. The agency recommended the prosecution of nine Punjab Police officials in connection with his kidnapping and murder.
The legal proceedings dragged on for years. On October 16, 2007, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and A.N. Jindal, enhanced the sentence to life imprisonment for four of the accused — former Sub-Inspectors Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh, and former Head Constable Prithipal Singh.
After Satluj’s OTT debut and its removal from ZEE5, Jaswant’s wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, has voiced her opinion about the film inspired by her late husband’s life.
Giving her approval and stating that she is ‘pleased and relieved’ that the film has reached the audience after years of struggles, Paramjit stated:
“We are reassured that, despite immense pressure and repeated attempts to make changes, the film's original spirit and truth have been preserved. Jaswant Singh Khalra's life was a testament to fearless courage in the pursuit of truth, justice and the protection of human rights. It was therefore of utmost importance to us that both his story and the genocide of the Sikhs be portrayed with honesty, without compromise or distortion.”
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
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