“What I Have Revealed Is Only Five Per Cent Of What I Know”

Alleged ex-Babbar Khalsa man-turned pol­ice informer and then a vital cog in anti-terror activities with the Punjab police, Gurmeet Singh Pinky was jailed in the Avtar Singh Gola murder case. He talks  about all this and the recent controversy over his reinstatement  and then sacking from the force. Excerpts:

The timing of your revelations is curious. Why now and why not earlier?

The period in jail changed me. I thought of my life and decided to confess. Yes, I committed many wrongs. I kept quiet bec­ause I was told by my seniors that my interests would be protected. I remember the time in 2012 when then IG litigation, B.K. Uppal, came to see me in Nabha Open Jail. He said that he had been sent by the “boss” (S.S. Saini) to ask me to “keep my trap shut”. I kept quiet in jail even when my father died in 2002, and my mother in 2008. I came out for their funeral under police escort for two hours. Meanwhile, my relatives stole my property and house. I have been betrayed, promises have been broken...enough is enough. I have nothing to lose, not even my life as I gave away my best years on the orders of my seniors.

Tell us your background...are you also from the ranks of cats?

I was never a cat, I was recruited as a constable in 1987. I got quick promotions because of my anti-terrorist work. I became an ASI in 1990 and an inspector in ’95. Because of my operational skills, I was in the CIA for a long time.

You have given some details of police excesses. How much more do you know?

What I told you is only 5 per cent of what I know. What I have seen and what I have been part of, if I revealed everything...it would shock the people.

What is it that you want now by making all these revelations?

We need a judicial inquiry into what happened during the militancy years. What the public knows even now is only half-truths. Many of the officers holding senior ranks now are guilty of the worst crimes. I also want a fresh probe and justice in the ‘Gola killing’ case.