User:Utcursch/Baldev Singh and Baljinder Singh

Baldev Singh and Baljinder Singh are an Indian serial killer duo. Baldev Singh was arrested in 2015, when he surrendered himself to the police after being diagnosed with Huntington's disease. Baljinder Singh is believed to have been arrested in 2011 under the name "Amarjeet Singh", and to be currently lodged in the Kolhapur prison. The police accused them of killing 105 people over a period of 15 years. However, Baldev Singh confessed to only 8 murders (in 2000), and the police could confirm his involvement in only 7 of these murders. According to Baldev, Baljinder might have committed more murders.

Baldev Singh
Baldev Singh, alias Harbhajan Singh, alias Kaddy spent his childhood in Jagraon, Punjab. His father, an armyman, would often hit his mother. Baldev would often object to it, and at the age of 21, physically stopped his father from slapping his mother. Baldev wanted his father to set up a shop for him, but his father was concerned that Baldev would not be able to manage the funds judiciously. He later agree to help Baldev financially in starting a business at an existing shop. One day, Baldev suddenly left home for Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh. There, he stayed at the Manikaran Sahib Gurdwara for five years, and became an Amritdhari (baptized Sikh). In Manikaran, he met his future accomplices Baljinder Singh and Langra, both of whom were sewadars. Baldev worked as a sewadar in Manikarn till 1997. He then went to a dera (centre of a religious sect) in Randhawa village, and worked as a ragi there.

Five years after he had left his home, Baldev returned to Jagraon, and encouraged his brothers to become Amritdharis. Several people would come to him to return to his bani recitals. Baldev wanted his parents to arrange a marriage for him, but his parents believed that he was not ready for a married life. Baldev then left home to visit Raikot, and then moved on to Amritsar. He reportedly left Raikot due an accusation of unrequited love or a charge of sexual harassment.

Baldev's mother died in 2002, and his father died in 2011. He has two brothers. According to his brother Nihaar Singh, the family had issued a public notice in a newspaper disowning him, when the police started visiting their home to inquire about him. According to Baldev's young brother Hardeep Singh, Baldev suffers from tremors in hands, which might be the sign of a mental illness. Hardeep stated that Baldev did not show any symptoms of mental illness as a child, but their mother inherited tremors from their grandmother. However, Rajnath Singh, the police officer investigating the murder cases, stated that Baldev Singh was not suffering from any ailment. During his stay in Ludhiana, Baldev was diagnosed with Huntington's disease; his mother had died of this disease.

Baljinder Singh
The police have no information about Baljinder Singh's background, but he is known to have been present during all the murders committed by Baldev.

Murders
According to the police, Baldev and Baljinder committed 105 murders. Baldev confessed to only 8 murders, which he said, were committed by him and Baljinder together. He stated that Baljinder might have committed more murders. The police have been able to confirm his involvement in 7 of these murders. The 8 murders confessed by Baldev are as follows:


 * 27 April 2000: Baldev and Baljinder rented a room near Guru ka Tal in Agra. That night, they killed the owner of the house and his wife. They then fled with cash and gold ornaments.


 * 28 April 2000: They hired a taxi from the Mathura bus stand. On the way, they killed the taxi driver, as they had no money to pay the fare, and took off in the vehicle.


 * 28 April 2000: They hired another taxi about 30 km from Amaria, Uttar Pradesh. Once again, they killed the driver and escaped with the vehicle.


 * 26 May 2000: Baldev and Baljinder gagged to death an employee of a paint store in the Civil Lines area of Amritsar. They then fled on his scooter.


 * 29 June 2000: Baldev killed Harbans Kaur in Kot Mangal Singh, and fled with her gold ornaments. As a teenager, Baldev had been a tenant as well as an apprentice of her husband Karam Singh, during the mid-1980s. Even during his stay at Manikaran, Baldev had remained in touch with Karam Singh's family, and would visit them occasionally. This time, Baldev and Baljinder came to Ludhiana on 26 June. Over the next two days, Baldev visited Karam Singh and Harbans Kaur and requested them to arrange a matrimonial alliance for him. When Kaur refused to oblige, she was strangulated.


 * 13 July 2000: Baldev and Bajinder killed Baldev's relatives Davinder Kaur and her 17-year-old son in New Shimlapuri area of Ludhiana. They fled with the victims' cash and ornaments. Davinder had agreed to arrange a marriage for Baldev, but called it off after she came to know about his criminal background. According to the police, Baldev and Baljinder had also killed one Avtar Singh on 25 June, in Amritsar. The duo allegedly strangulated him at his kiosk around 7.30 p.m., and then shut the kiosk before fleeing with cash and valuables. The police say that they had alerted Baldev's relatives, including Davinder's husband Gursharan Singh, after this murder.

All these murders involved strangulation. According to the police, Baldev used to asphyxiate the victims by choking their neck, while Baljinder held their feet. Most of the victims had refused to arrange a marriage for Baldev Singh.

Arrest of Baljinder Singh
After the murder of Davinder Kaur and her son, Baldev and Baljinder went to a relative's place in Chandigarh. The relative alerted the police, but the duo managed to escape. The two then fled to Mumbai, where they worked at Poonam Plastics, a bangle manufacturing unit in Goregaon. They planned to kill its owner. Baldev told the police that after spending a month in Mumbai, he came to visit Punjab and spent some time there. While returning to Mumbai, in 2001, he read a newspaper report that Baljinder and his accomplice Gulzar Singh had been arrested for killing the owner of the bangle manufacturing unit. He then abandoned his journey. The Punjab police suspect that Baldev Singh was himself involved in the murder of the factory owner. However, the Mumbai police have no record of any Baljinder Singh or Baldev Singh. According to them, the people convicted for the murder include the following: Gulzar Singh alias Rinku, Ghulam Arab Khan, Kailash Singh alias Nepali, Nehru Lal Girdhari, Pankaj Kumar and Amarjeet Singh Mann. After his arrest in 2015, Baldev Singh stated that Amarjeet Singh might be a new identity adopted by Baljinder Singh. These convicts had made the factory owner Daheljiram Chowdhary sign blank cheques before killing him. They had also killed his brother, his brother-in-law and five factory workers on a single night. Two of the accused were arrested while trying to encash the chques signed by Chowdhary.

Baldev Singh in Ludhiana
According to Baldev Singh, he was adopted by the family of one Jatinder Kumar in 2002. Kumar and his mother had come to Delhi in search of his missing brother Inderjeet. They could not find Inderjeet, but stumbled upon Baldev, who was lying on roadside without food or shelter. Kumar and his mother took Baldev to their home in Ludhiana, nursed him back to health, and rechristened him "Inderjeet". Baldev grew very close to Kumar's family, and started helping him in business. He started working as a bicycle mechanic, at Kot Mangal Singh area in Shimlapuri, and lived in a one-room accommodation near the shop. He lived a crime-free life, with the exception of an opium-peddling case. He was arrested and released on bail in 2012; the opium was found to be adulterated. On this instance, he had been booked under the name "Inder Singh". After his arrest in 2015, the police claimed that he had deliberately changed his name and his appearance to avoid being identified as the serial killer.

Arrest of Baldev Singh
On 24 May 2015, Baldev suddenly left Ludhiana and came to his house in Jagraon. He went to the local police station and told the cops that he was the serial killer they had been looking for. The police dismissed him as a "nutcase". Meanwhile, Jatinder Kumar lodged a missing complaint in Ludhiana. While investigating the case, the cops learnt about Baldev's criminal history, and arrested him.

The police cross-checked Baldev's picture with the crime records of most wanted criminals in India, and determined that he was behind 105 killings. However, Baldev claimed that he was involved only in 8 murders, and said that Baljinder had committed more murders. When asked about the motive behind the murders, Baldev constantly answered "Time was bad". He stated that he did not think what he was doing at the time, and Baljinder did all the 'thinking'. The police decided to conduct a narco test on Baldev, but he refused to undertake such a test.

In 2015, Punjab police dispatched a team to Mumbai to arrest Baljinder, who is believed to have been arrested for a murder in 2001. However, Mumbai police in Goregaon stated that they did not have records older than 10 years. Later, the police came to know that Baljinder is lodged in a jail at Kolhapur. The Punjab Police wanted to produce Baljinder Singh before the Ludhiana court in August 2015, however they could not get permission from the Maharashtra government in time.

The Punjab police also dispatched another team to Fatehgarh Sahib to nab the duo's accomplice Langra, who was suspected to be working as a sewadar at a dera.