Bimal Kaur Khalsa

Bibi Bimal Kaur (1951 – 2 September 1991) was an Indian politician and the wife of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi.

Bibi Bimal Kaur Khalsa
Born	1951
Died	2 September 1991(1991-09-02) (aged 39–40)
Occupation(s)	Nurse, politician
Employer	Lady Hardinge Medical College
Known for	Khalistan movement
Title	member of Lok Sabha
Spouse	Beant Singh ​ ​ (m. 1976; died 1984)​

Biography

Bibi Bimal Kaur was a nurse at Lady Hardinge Medical College when her husband assassinated Indira Gandhi. Immediately after the assassination she was picked by the Indian security forces, she disappeared for several days leaving her children Amrit, Sarabjeet and Jassi at home. She was detained, interrogated, and most likely tortured for 2 weeks. The Damdami Taksal paid for her children's education for two years. Bibi Bimal Kaur stayed in Delhi until 1985 when she and the family moved to Punjab with the assistance of the Damdami Taksal. From there she worked with Sikh Student Federations and began to call out the injustices of the government, the false encounter issues, and corrupt politicians like the CM of Punjab Surjit Barnala. Barnala on April 30th, 1986 ordered troops into Darbar Sahib again to flush out kharkus who were disrupting his plans. On June 4th, 1986 she went to Darbar Sahib with 200 members to speak on the atrocities of the government, at this time Surjit Barnala essentially had his goons throughout the Gurudwara complex to ensure stop the Khalistan movement. The crowd cheered for Khalistan. In a confrontation with his men and sikh warriors, a guard was killed.

After her speech, she was wrongfully arrested, charged for murder, and served 2 years in jail. Normally one would play it safe when coming out of prison, but Bibi Ji was fearless, in 1989 she campaigned for Lok Sabha from Ropar. And she won a seat with Simranjeet Singh Maans SAD. She now had further leverage, and political strength, both of which made her a more serious threat to the government.

Later her father-in-law, Beant Singh's father Sucha Singh Maloa, was also elected as a member of parliament. Sarbjit Singh, her son, was nominated by the SAD (A) headed by Simranjit Singh Mann to run for parliament from the Bathinda and Mansa in 2004.

Death

Bimal Kaur died on 2 September 1991. Her death is shrouded in mystery. Early reports said she was picked up by police and poisoned with cyanide which was a common tactic against kharkus around that time. The police tried covering it up and said she died from electrocution from her washing machine. Knowing the history of the police and their false encounters its safe to assume she was murdered, and it was no accident. Some reports that reached the press indicated that Bimal Khalsa consumed cyanide. As she had small children, the suspicion immediately arose that she had been forcibly administered cyanide. Her nearest relative demanded a post-mortem which, under normal circumstances, the police was bound to conduct on request but the police refused this.