High Court orders CBI probe to find missing soldier Rajat Singh

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the case of the disappearance of Rajat Singh, a soldier of the Indian Army's 28 Punjab Regiment. According to a report by Sandesh (Desh), the bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdeva issued this order on 4 November 2026.

Rajat Singh was posted in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. It has been claimed that he was sent on deputation to Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, by retired Colonel Ake Dubey, which was not in accordance with the rules. He was last seen on 28 July 2018 at the officers' mess of the Northern Command headquarters in Bareilly, after which he mysteriously disappeared.

Updesh Singh, the father of Rajat Singh, a resident of Damowal village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, has struggled for a long time to find his son. On 30 July 2019, an FIR was registered at the Bareilly Cantt police station under Section 364 for kidnapping with intent to murder. As no progress was made in the investigation, Updesh Singh wrote a letter to the then Chief Justice Govind Mathur seeking judicial assistance.

The High Court took this letter suo motu and accepted it as a habeas corpus petition. A special hearing was conducted on this matter on 2 October 2019, despite it being a Gandhi Jayanti holiday. During the hearing, the Military Police Commanding Officer of Bareilly Cantt was instructed to provide all information. It is alleged that the investigating officer had requested the interrogation of Lance Naik Balwant Singh, but no response was received. Despite the efforts of the Uttar Pradesh Police, no concrete information was found.

The court has now asked the CBI to find Rajat Singh and produce him before the court. If the investigating agency fails to find him, a detailed report of the proceedings must be submitted, based on which the High Court will take a further decision.