Darbara Singh (murderer)

Darbara Singh (1942/1943 or 1960/1961 – 6 June 2018) was an Indian serial killer who was convicted of two murders.

During April–October 2004, 23 children of non-Punjabi migrants were kidnapped in the Jalandhar city of Punjab, India. Many of these children were sexually assaulted, and 17 of them were killed. In October, the police apprehended Darbara Singh, who had earlier been jailed for nearly a decade in another case involving sexual assault and attempted murder of a child. Singh allegedly confessed that he was behind all these abductions, sexual assaults and murders in 2004. He was convicted of two of the murders, and sentenced to life in prison. He was also convicted of two more murders; in this case, he had led the police to dead bodies after his arrest. He was given a death sentence in this case, but was later acquitted by the High Court because of insufficient evidence. He was also acquitted in four more cases because of insufficient evidence. He died in 2018, while serving a life sentence, with some of the cases pending trial.