Assassination of Arun Vaidya

 

“…I and Daljit Singh (Bittu) stayed here in Pune. We then brought an Indo-Suzuki Motorcycle to assassinate general Vaidya. For many days we would go by Vaidya’s house, we would see his guards standing but never saw Vaidya. Vaidya had a DIB1437 Maruti car. One day, Daljit went to the hospital in Bombay to see if Sukhwinder Singh was okay. On that day, I went to the market on the motorcycle and spotted Vaidya’s car. He stopped the card ahead and I parked the motorcycle nearby. I looked carefully and it was him along with his guards. I had no weapon on me; I immediately went home to get my weapon, when I came back he’d gone.

The next day, Daljit Singh came back. We went to his house but he had taken his car out somewhere and did not return for a few days. We then made plans go to back to Panjab as veer Harjinder Singh had escaped from Ahmedabad. I hadn’t seen him, so I said to veer (Daljit Singh) lets go meet him and then we will come back to Pune. So we went to Panjab, there we met veer (Harjinder Singh) then set off back to Pune.

On the 3rdAugust, I, Harjinder Singh and another brother arrived in Durgh Madra Pradesh from Panjab. Then I and Harjinder Singh went to Pune.

On the 17thAugust 1986, we came to Pune. Vaidya had moved house from there and some other major general had moved in. We thought we’ll go to his house and ask where Vaidya had gone. I went to the house whilst Brother Harjinder Singh stood outside ready. The major general was not at home but one of his servants was. I asked his servant about Vaidya, he didn’t know properly and I couldn’t understand what he was saying properly. He told me a bit ahead there is a bridge and next to that there is a colony, and he lives there. So we did the following. The colony was very big and there were lots of houses further in the fields. We drove around all day on the motorcycle. After driving around for a while, finally we spotted a house with a Maruti car parked inside but we couldn’t see the number plate because it was parked at an angle. However, there was no sign of Vaidya.

The next day we spotted a guard, I said “it’s the same guards.” On the third day, on the 10thAugust 1986 at approximately 9.30 in the morning we arrived at the front of his house. We circled nearby his house but there was no sight of him. Then we went again at 11am in front of his house. When we arrived we saw his wife had an umbrella in her hand and she was with the guards. When we saw the umbrella, we realised that they were about to go out. Straight after Vaidya also came out of the house.  They all sat in the car and Vaidya was the one driving. We also set off on our motorcycle and started following them.

They stopped at a market and went into a store to buy something. We also stopped our motorcycle nearby. The motorcycle was unreliable and we had to push it to start it. Then a parking attendant came over and said park your bike, I can’t let you park it like that. Soon after, Vaidya and the rest came out of the shop. They then drove off, they stopped further on to buy some vegetables and then set off to go back home. Then Harjinder Singh said, “Today we will not let them return home!”

Harjinder Singh was driving the motorcycle and said “Shall I go level with them?” I said “Do it!”

When the motorcycle went level with them, the bullets pierced into him and his face hit the steering wheel. Blood was gushing out of his face and nose. We were convinced so we roared Jaikaray. Vaidya’s car went and crashed on the side of the road.

At the place where we assassinated Vaidya there was a police station opposite and also Ranjit Dayal’s (Lt Col) house. There were quite a few guards stood there.

We then went back to our house, changed our clothes, boarded different buses and went to Bombay. From Bombay, we boarded a train and went to Durgh, stayed one night in Durgh and then went to Calcutta…”

Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha