Raghbir Singh, Bans, son of Basant Singh, Jat, Village Kandola, District Jullundur. He was in the 12th Sikhs but was dismissed for holding seditious views. On return to his village, he joined the Akali movement and in 1924 was appointed a Secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee and the Akali Dal of the Jullundur district, in which capacity he made arrangements for the entertainment of the Canadian Shahidi Jatha at Jullundur city. He also organized a meeting at which he delivered a seditious speech. He was accordingly prosecuted under Section 17 (2) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment in October 1924. He is also reported to have worked for some time on the editorial staff of the "Desh Sewak" newspaper. He went to Vancouver, Canada, in September 1931, claiming to be a representative of the Star of India Insurance Co., of Lahore. He afterwards joined the University of British Columbia. At a meeting held at the Sikh Temple, Vancouver on 15th January 1932 to celebrate Guru Gobind Singh's birthday, he admired the sacrifices made by Soviet Russia and expressed a desire to go there in order to learn how the Russians had succeeded in freeing their country. He warned his listeners against the trickery of the British people and urged the study of the manufacture of chemicals and munitions. At the annual celebration to commemorate the Babbar Akali martyrs on the 22nd May 1932 he was reported to have delivered a speech arguing that the history ofthe world showed that no country could enjoy freedom unless it first became united by revolution. At a meeting of the Hindustani Young Men's Association (The organization of the Ghadr Party group in British Columbia) at the Sikh Temple in Vancouver on the 28th of August 1932 he recounted the "tortures suffered by the martyrs" and reminded the audience that "the time for revolution was drawing near".