CHANDIGARH: Apart from investigating into the 1986 Nakodar killings in which four Sikh youths died in police firing, the Justice Gurnam Singh Commission had also conducted an investigation into finding out the cause of death of Jagjit Singh Rode, brother of Sikh militant-preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale .

The commission concluded that Rode, then the general secretary of the United Akali Dal, was accidentally run over by a passenger train near Talwandi Bhai level crossing, near Faridkot railway station, and it was not a case of murder, as was feared by his family. The commission had submitted its 21-page report, a copy of which is with TOI, to then chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala-headed SAD government on June 26, 1986, when the state was in the grip of militancy.

After the Aam Aadmi Party had demanded that the report be made public during the ongoing budget session of Punjab assembly, speaker Rana K P Singh had informed the assembly on February 13 that the panel report on Rode’s cause of death was presented in the state assembly on December 16, 1986. The speaker had also stated that another report on the 1986 Nakodar police firing case was tabled in the assembly on March 5, 2001, but the action taken report was never presented in the assembly.

The commission’s report concludes: “Whatever may be the case, it appears that as Jagjit Singh Rode was in hurry and wanted to cross the railway line for easing himself, his legs got entangled in the wires of the signal and he fell on the railway line, and in the meantime, the coming train crossed over him and cut him into two pieces and he died (on March 18, 1986).”

Rode’s father, Joginder Singh, and the UAD had demanded a high-level probe alleging that Rode had not committed suicide, but was murdered and his body was laid on the railway line. Thereafter, Rode’s family members accompanied by UAD members had gheraoed the Punjab legislative assembly on March 20, 1986, and later met Barnala to demand a probe. Barnala had ordered the constitution of a commission of inquiry (COI), headed by Justice Gurnam Singh on March 27, 1986.

Justice Gurnam Singh had recorded: “There can be two possible stories : (1) that from some place at Faridkot, Jagjit Singh Rode had gone to ease himself towards the pond near the place of the incident, and while crossing the railway track in hurry on seeing the coming train, he was run over, or (2) that he came in a bus from village rode to Faridkot via Sandhwan road, and as the train was coming from the side of Faridnagar (sic) railway station, the railway gates must have been closed, and the bus halted at the railway crossing and Jagjit Singh Rode being under pressure, might have left the bus and gone towards the pond for easing himself.”

