At 8.56 am on Sunday, November 27, 12 armed men stormed the high security Nabha Central Jail in Punjab. Eight minutes later, at 9.04 am, they emerged with six inmates, among them gangster Harjinder Singh Bhullar, popularly known as Vicky Gounder, and Khalistan Liberation Force militant Harminder Singh Mintoo. The Punjab government declared a high alert following the jailbreak. The police set up nakas (checkpoints) and were directed to be on the lookout for suspicious activities.

The same morning, in Patiala, 25 kilometres from Nabha, Sarabjit Singh, owner of the Armaan International music troupe, was preparing for a performance at a marriage in nearby Arno village. After picking up three of his dancers, Singh reached the home of 24-year-old Neha Sharma in Patiala’s Gobind Bagh colony around 9.45 am. Sharma had been working as a dancer in Singh’s troupe for the last eight years, ever since she moved to Patiala from Sunam town in Sangrur district. Singh, along with the four dancers, left for Arno in a Swift Dzire (HR-60B-2657) a little after 10am. Around 11.30 am, they were signalled to stop at a police naka near Dharamheri village, outside the town of Samana, close to the Punjab-Haryana border. Singh was driving and Sharma was in the passenger seat.

“The police had set up a naka,” Singh told Newslaundry. “They waved for me to stop. But even as I was slowing the car down, they started firing.” Singh claims the police fired six-to-seven rounds before he could bring the car to a halt.

Harvinder Singh Khaira, Station House Officer (SHO), Samana, who was present on the spot at the time of the incident, had a different story to tell. Speaking to Newslaundry, Khaira alleged Singh’s car did not slow down when asked and also hit him on the knee. “We had four-five nakas in the area,” Khaira said. “The car was coming at us at a very high speed. I waved to the driver to stop, but he instead sped away after the car touched me.” Khaira added that barricades were placed at a gap of 10-15 feet from each other and policemen were manning each barricade. “After he hit me on the knee, men at the next barricade also waved at him to stop, but the car drove around it. That’s when they fired,” he said.

One of those bullets pierced the car’s windscreen and hit Sharma in the chest, killing her instantly. Her family claims another bullet hit Sharma on the side, although this allegation cannot be corroborated as the post-mortem report has not been released yet. Another bullet injured a man who was passing by on a motorcycle (there is confusion about this man’s identity as one report says his name is Chanderbhan, while another says it is Kala Singh).  

With the Nabha jailbreak and six prisoners on the run, the state’s border regions were particularly tense. “We knew they [the prisoners] would cross the border [into Haryana],” Khaira said. Consequently, border areas like Samana, Sangrur, Patiala and Ganaur were on special alert on Sunday, he explained.

These circumstances have been offered as explanation for why Khaira and his men were suspicious of the speeding car, but it still doesn’t absolve them of shooting at a vehicle with four women inside, and a woman in the clearly-visible passenger seat.

Since the bullet that hit Sharma went through the windscreen, one can assume the policemen who fired stood facing the car as it drove towards him. Khaira insisted that the car was moving so fast that it wasn’t possible to make out who was seated inside. Khaira also refused to comment when asked whether the shots were aimed at the car’s tyres or the passengers.  

Whether it was due to a gross overreaction or negligence on the police’s part, the unalterable truth for the Sharma family is that it has lost its sole earning member. Sharma is survived by her mother and her three brothers – Rinku, aged 26, Manish, aged 25 and Manthan, aged 15. She lost their father 15 years ago and eight years ago, she moved to Patiala at the age of 16, all by herself, in order to supplement her mother’s income as a school teacher in Sunam. Two years later, she asked the rest of her family to join her in Patiala. “She was the one who took care of all our expenses,” a grieving Rinku told Newslaundry.

Rinku used to accompany Neha on her performances and remembered his younger sister as mature beyond her years. “She always used to think of the long term,” he said. “We recently moved into our own house and she wanted to get the kitchen set up nicely. The next day [Monday] was our mother’s birthday and before she left she told me she wanted to gift her a Scooty,” he said. Rinku added that the police have assured the family compensation of up to Rs 10 lakh and a government job for one of the brothers. While the police have been in touch with the family, they have yet to hear from any representative of the state government.

Newslaundry tried to contact Patiala Range Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurmit Singh Chauhan to confirm when the compensation and job offer will be given to the family, but he couldn’t be reached despite repeated attempts.

Most important for the family, though, is demanding justice. “Insaaf to hona chahiye ladki ke saath [she should get justice],” Rinku said. “They’re saying that terrorists were on the run that’s why they fired. The terrorists that escaped were men and there were girls in the car. It was day time. They could see through the windows. Still they fired.”

As of now, the police have not released the name of the person who fired at the car. While reports of the incident claimed a constable named Samsher Singh was responsible, the police have not named anybody in the First Information Report (FIR), pinning the blame on “agyaat vyakti (unknown person)”, according to Rinku, who claimed to have seen a copy of the FIR. Singh confessed he couldn’t identify the person who fired, further eroding chances of a conviction. Khaira told Newslaundry that an investigation into the case was underway and he would share its findings in “a couple of days”.

It would seem naïve to expect the police investigation to yield any concrete results, especially since it would necessitate apprehending one of Punjab Police’s own.

While the Sharma family’s wait for justice could be a prolonged one, within 24 hours of the jailbreak, Mintoo was apprehended by Delhi police from Nizamuddin station, as was Palwinder Singh Pinda (who was reportedly the mastermind behind the operation) from Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district. Before their arrest, the police found two vehicles abandoned by the fugitives, both in Haryana’s Kaithal district. The site of Sharma’s death, Dharamheri, is almost midway between Nabha and Kaithal and it is possible they may have crossed the border close to Samana.

So, while Punjab Police let the fugitives they were chasing slip across the border, the one who paid with her life is a 24-year-old dancer named Neha Sharma.