40 years ago September 24, 1986: Brig Puri’s ‘killer’ nabbed

This is the front page of The Indian Express published on September 24, 1986.

2 min readSep 24, 2026 06:43 AM IST First published on: Sep 24, 2026 at 06:40 AM IST

Nine terrorists, including an Army deserter, Rachpal Singh, allegedly responsible for the killing of Brigadier Puri and two other army officials at Ramgarh in Bihar after Operation Bluestar in June 1984 were arrested by the security forces from different places in Punjab, reports received in Chandigarh said. Rachpal Singh (35) had also allegedly attempted to sow disaffection among a section of the Army at Ramgarh and Khem Karan in Punjab immediately after Operation Bluestar.

Soviet Union for N-ban

The Soviet Union offered to sign at “any time and in any place” a treaty on the total prohibition of nuclear weapons to be verified under the proposals made by India and five other countries. The Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, told the UN General Assembly that there was no problem about the verification of nuclear tests and his country was open to any form or method of verification.

Death in police custody

Dayal Singh, 40, who died in police custody, was badly beaten up and tortured to death, the post-mortem report has revealed. There were injury marks all over his body, according to the postmortem report. The South Delhi DCP, Maxwell Pereira, had said after the death that there were no external marks of injury on the body. Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences described the police statement as a “blatant lie”. The report has led to a near-confrontation between some doctors and the police.

Curbs on visits to Singapore

Indian nationals visiting Singapore will have to obtain visas as the government in Singapore has decided to impose restrictions on their visit to the republic. A senior Home Ministry official said that the implementation will take place before the end of the year but the actual date will be announced later.