Reduce Rajoan’s death sentence to life term: DSGMC (Punjab)

Posted at: Oct 7, 2018, 12:15 AM 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6

A delegation of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) led by its president Manjit Singh (GK) met Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gaba raising the community issues, including reducing death sentence of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana into life imprisonment and release him from the jail. Rajoana was sentenced to death on August 1, 2007, by a special CBI court in Chandigarh for the assassination of Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.

Balwant Singh Rajoana

They also demanded special concession for releasing Sikh convicts who attained the age of 70 years, denial of Sajjan Kumar accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots to face SIT constituted by the government to investigate the cases and filling the vacancy of police officers in SIT constituted by the Supreme Court to investigate the 1984 riots cases. Besides, the delegation urged the Home Secretary to handover Gurdwara Dangmar Sahib in Sikkim to the Sikh community. It also raised the nationality issue of Sikhs migrated from Afghanistan, Sikh killed in Kanpur during 1984 riots. 

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/delhi/reduce-rajoan-s-death-sentence-to-life-term-dsgmc/664375.html (Accessed 25 December 2018)

Death row convict Rajoana ends hunger strike after meeting with SGPC chief (Punjab)

Posted at: Jul 20, 2018, 8:21 PM 

Patiala: Balwant Singh Rajoana, the death row convict in the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh assassination case, on Friday ended his hunger strike in the Patiala central jail following a meeting with the SGPC chief.

Balwant Singh Rajoana

Rajoana had recently written to the Patiala jail superintendent that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had moved a mercy petition seeking commutation of his death penalty into life imprisonment in 2012 before the then President Pratibha Patil without taking his consent. According to media reports, Rajoana had accused the SPGC of failing to pursue his mercy petition. He had claimed that until the SGPC does not withdraw the mercy petition—if they do not get any results—or the Union Home Ministry does not conclude on it he would remain on hunger strike.

The SGPC, in a statement today, said that its chief Gobind Singh Longowal met Rajoana in the Patiala central jail here, following which he ended his hunger strike. Jail Superintendent Rajan Kapoor confirmed that Rajoana has ended his hunger strike. Rajoana, who began his fast unto death from Monday, had earlier turned down the SGPC’s request to end it. Longowal, along with Akali Dal MPs, had recently met Union Minister Rajnath Singh regarding Rajoana’s mercy petition. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court had in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the Beant Singh assassination case.

Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012. However, the execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, by Patil after the SPGC filed the mercy petition. The President had forwarded the application to the Home Ministry but the later is yet to take any decision on it. Rajoana is currently lodged in execution cell of the Patiala central jail. Former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab, was assassinated by Dilawar Singh, a human bomb, at the high security Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.

While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first assassin failed. Rajoana, during the trial, had admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had in October 2010 upheld the death sentence for Rajoana, but changed the capital punishment given to Hawara to life imprisonment. Rajoana had refused to challenge the death sentence awarded to him. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 2012 had said it would go to any extent to save Rajoana and asked the SGPC “to take all possible legal and other steps” to secure clemency for him. — PTI

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/death-row-convict-rajoana-ends-hunger-strike-after-meeting-with-sgpc-chief/623695.html (Accessed 25 December 2018)

SAD, SGPC delegation meets union home minister, gets assurance of early decision on Rajoana’s clemency petition (Punjab)

TNN | Jul 18, 2018, 08.03 PM IST

Manish Sirhindi

PATIALA: A delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Wednesday met union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, seeking an early decision in the clemency petition of Beant Singh assassin, Balwant Singh Rajoana. The Union Minister gave a patient hearing to the delegation and assured them that he would soon beckon all reports related to Rajoana's case and would have the matter expedited. The delegation comprising of SAD General Secretary and Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Member of Parliament from Anandpur Sahib Prem Singh Chandumajra, MP Balwinder Singh Bhunder and former MP Tarlochan Singh along with SGOC president Gobind Singh Longowal met the union home minister. Speaking to the TOI over the phone from Delhi, Prem Singh Chandumajra said they have sought an early decision on the SGPC’s petition for commuting of Rajoana's death sentence to life imprisonment. 

Balwant Singh Rajaona

He said in March 2012 when Rajoana was to be hanged inside the Patiala central jail, the situation in Punjab had become quite tense. There were intelligence reports that hanging Rajoana could lead to law and order situation in the state following which the SGPC filed the clemency petition with the President of India and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal met the union government and got his execution stayed just two days ahead of the scheduled hanging. Chandumajra said in case Rajoana is again put on the death row after the dismissal of his clemency petition, a similar situation can arise in the state, which the SAD did not want to happen. Reacting to the statement given by Congress MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Bittu, who is also the grandson of former chief minister Beant Singh, Chandumajra said when his party president Sonia Gandhi has forgiven the killers of Rajiv Gandhi, Bittu should also follow the suite. Replying to Bittu's comment that SAD was supporting a separatist, the Akali MP asserted by forgiving killers of former Prime Minister, has the Gandhi family also become the supporters of separatists. 

He said the SAD failed to understand that when the family of former chief minister Beant Singh has long ago forgiven Rajoana, why the young MP was still fostering hard feelings against him. Meanwhile, he said, a delegation of SGPC would soon meet Balwant Singh Rajoana inside the Patiala central jail and inform him about the stand taken by the union home minister in this regard, persuading him to end his indefinite fast. After the SGPC had moved the clemency petition in 2012 on behalf of Rajoana, the matter was referred to the home ministry for feedback and since then the matter has remained pending since then. The final decision in this regard will be taken by the President of India on the basis of the recommendations to be made by the union home minister.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sad-sgpc-delegation-meets-union-home-minister-gets-assurance-of-early-decision-on-rajoanas-clemency-petition/articleshowprint/65042663.cms (Accessed 25 December 2018)

Beant Singh assassination case: Jagtar Singh Tara gets life imprisonment (Punjab)

By Express Web Desk |New Delhi |Updated: March 17, 2018 5:55:01 pm

Beant Singh assassination case: Confessing his crime in January, Jagtar Singh Tara had submitted a letter to the court stating, “I have no regret for killing Beant Singh”. 

Jagtar Singh

A day after pronouncing Jagtar Singh Tara guilty in the case of assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, the district court of Chandigarh on Saturday sentenced him to life imprisonment. “The Court has passed the order for life imprisonment for him,” Tara’s lawyer said. Chief Secretary of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Roop Singh said, “Jagtar Singh Tara murdered Beant Singh out of emotions and not due to land or property dispute. Murdering someone is bad but he has been given punishment after 22 years. It’s painful for family as well as for the Sikh community.” Confessing his crime in January, Tara had submitted a letter to the court stating, “I have no regret for killing Beant Singh”. He had also said that Shaheed Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, was his inspiration to kill Beant. He also admitted that he purchased the car used for the assassination of Beant and they all waited for the best opportunity to kill the former CM.

As per the defence counsel, in the letter, Tara had stated that he took inspiration from Sikh history and tradition, which taught him not to bear injustice, and the circumstances at that time were intolerable when innocent Sikh youths were being brutally murdered. Earlier, Balwant Singh Rajoana was also convicted in the assasination case. The Chandigarh police had arrested nine persons for the assassination of Beant Singh while six others booked in the case were later declared proclaimed offenders by the court. Beant was killed in a bomb blast outside Punjab and Haryana secretariat on August 31, 1995. The explosion had killed 17 others, including Punjab Police constable Dilawar Singh, who acted as a human bomb. Tara was charged under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act.

The trial began in the district court in 1995. However, in 2004, Jagtar Singh Tara, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjeet Singh Bheora escaped from the high-security Burail Model Jail in Chandigarh after digging a tunnel. In 2006, Jagtar Singh Hawara was arrested by the Punjab Police from Patiala. Among those convicted, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh Rajoana were sentenced to death. However, Hawara appealed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Currently, he is lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi. Rajoana, who did not appeal against the death sentence, is currently in Patiala jail. Among the other convicts, Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh were sentenced to life imprisonment and Naseeb Singh was sentenced 10 years of imprisonment.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/beant-singh-assassination-case-jagtar-singh-tara-gets-life-imprisonment-5101201/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Punjab & Haryana HC explain ‘aggrieved person’ in death sentence commutation plea (Punjab)

November 20, 2017

The Punjab & Haryana High Court bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain has ruled that a stranger cannot be permitted to enter into any legal proceedings unless he falls within the category of an ‘aggrieved person’ and noted “in the criminal jurisprudence, the aggrieved person would be the one who would suffer the legal injury”. The bench was hearing the petition of sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death convict, seeking commutation of death sentence. Rajoana was convicted for assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The Court asked the counsel for Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana, Balwant Singh’s sister to argue on the issue of maintainability of the petition at the request of the sister of the sentenced prisoner, who actually is the aggrieved person.

Balwant Singh Rajoana

Unmoved by the counsel’s submissions, the court said: “The condemned prisoner knew about his rights to defend himself during the trial but he deliberately chose not to seek any legal help. “After his conviction and sentence, he did not choose to challenge the same by way of an appeal to the Supreme Court and had accepted the sentence awarded by the Supreme Court for the offence(s) committed.” The Court further noted that Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana’s plea was unmaintainable and added: “In exceptional circumstances, if it is felt by the Court that the aggrieved person, because of ignorance, illiteracy, inarticulation or poverty, is unable to approach the court, then the petition on his or her behalf, filed by others, may be considered but the facts of this case do not at all indicate in any manner that the condemned prisoner needs anybody’s help to espouse his cause in the Court much-less for seeking a direction for his release by commuting the death sentence into life imprisonment.”

Source: http://www.indialegallive.com/top-news-of-the-day/news/punjab-haryana-hc-explain-aggrieved-person-death-sentence-commutation-plea-39432 (Accessed 23 December 2018)

HC dismisses plea to commute Balwant Rajoana's death sentence into life imprisonment (Punjab)

By Ajay Sura

TNN | Nov 7, 2017, 08.07 PM IST 

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by former Punjab chief minister (CM) assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana’s foster sister Kamaldeep Kaur to commute Balwant’s death sentence into life imprisonment. Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain passed the orders while observing that Kamaldeep Kaur has no locus standi to make such a plea on behalf of Rajoana. The detailed order has not been released by the HC. In her plea, Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana had submitted that she has been meeting her brother regularly in prison since his arrest. According to her, he has suffered physical and mental torture during the two-decade-long imprisonment. 

Balwant Singh Rajoana

This includes the debilitating wait after he was sentenced to death, first by the trial court in 2007 and then by the high court in 2010. "Being the sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, I have also suffered along with the rest of family, and have faced mental and economic distress," she had submitted. Her counsel Gursharan Kaur Mann had sought commutation of the death sentence on grounds of excessive and unreasonable delay in carrying out the death sentence and the consequent "irreparable mental agony and suffering" that his family has suffered during this period. Rajoana's death sentence was stayed on March 28, 2012 after the Union home ministry intervened on the request of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). 

The top Sikh body has also approached the President's office with a mercy plea which is pending. Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted in the assassination case of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, has never been represented by a lawyer in court. Even after he was sentenced to death by the Punjab and Haryana high court, he did not file an appeal in the Supreme Court. It was for the first that any appeal seeking relief for Rajoana was preferred. Even during the course of his entire trial, Rajoana had refused to seek any legal representation and did not file any appeal against his death sentence which was confirmed by the HC. He had also not filed any appeal before the apex court.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hc-dismisses-plea-to-commute-death-sentence-of-balwant-rajoana/articleshow/61548700.cms (Accessed 23 December 2018)

HC rejects plea to commute Rajoana’s death sentence (Punjab)

Posted at: Nov 8, 2017, 1:06 AM; last updated: Nov 8, 2017, 1:06 AM (IST) 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7

A decade after Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death by a Sessions Court for his role in former Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today dismissed a petition filed by his sister, Kamaldeep Kaur. She had sought commuting of the sentence to life imprisonment and his release. 

Balwant Singh Rajoana

Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain observed that Kamaldeep had no locus standi to file such a plea on Rajoana’s behalf. The detailed judgment was not yet available. Kamaldeep’s counsel Gursharan Kaur Mann had on the previous date of hearing addressed the court on the issue of locus — the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court. The petitioner had claimed that Rajoana had been languishing in prison for the past 22 years. Almost a decade had passed since the death sentence was pronounced and seven years since it was confirmed. Mann said the petitioner believed that Rajoana had experienced immense suffering due to the delay in carrying out the sentence. “This extraordinary and unjustified delay in the carrying out of his death sentence has also caused physical and mental agony to the petitioner and her family,” the counsel added.

Mann argued that Rajoana had refused to seek legal representation during the trial. He had not filed an appeal against his death sentence, which was confirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 12, 2010. He had also not filed a Special Leave Petition against the HC judgment. Mann said Rajoana had spent almost 21 years and 10 months in prison, including about 10 years and two months on death row. No action was taken for two years after the High Court judgment. In 2012, death warrant was issued against Rajoana, leading to worldwide protests by the Sikh community.

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/hc-rejects-plea-to-commute-rajoana-s-death-sentence/494188.html (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Ludhiana Court Rejects Jathedar Hawara’s Bail (Punjab)

By Sikh24 Editors - 

September 14, 2017

LUDHIANA, Punjab—A Session Court of Ludhiana on September 12 rejected the bail plea of Akal Takht Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara in a case pertaining to a bomb blast near the clock tower of Ludhiana in 1995. Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara was indicted under sections 307,427 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and sections 3 & 4 of the Arms Ammunition Act.

Jathedar Jagtar Singh Hawara

Speaking to Sikh24, Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur shared the development. He said that the case is under trial in the Court of Justice Atul Kasaan. Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara is currently being confined in the Tihar Jail of India’s national capital New Delhi. He was sentenced with the death penalty by the trial court in assassination case of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh but later his death penalty was commuted to a life sentence. Bhai Hawara’s legal counsel Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur is working to have him released on bail, whilst dighting to have him acquitted in a number allegedly trumped up cases registered against him.

Source: https://www.sikh24.com/2017/09/14/ludhiana-court-rejects-jathedar-hawaras-bail/#.XB_PplVKjIU (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Death row convict Rajoana ends hunger strike after meeting with SGPC chief

Posted at: Jul 20, 2018, 8:21 PM; last updated: Jul 20, 2018, 8:21 PM (IST)

Patiala, July 20: Balwant Singh Rajoana, the death row convict in the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh assassination case, on Friday ended his hunger strike in the Patiala central jail following a meeting with the SGPC chief. Rajoana had recently written to the Patiala jail superintendent that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had moved a mercy petition seeking commutation of his death penalty into life imprisonment in 2012 before the then President Pratibha Patil without taking his consent.According to media reports, Rajoana had accused the SPGC of failing to pursue his mercy petition.

He had claimed that until the SGPC does not withdraw the mercy petition—if they do not get any results—or the Union Home Ministry does not conclude on it he would remain on hunger strike.The SGPC, in a statement today, said that its chief Gobind Singh Longowal met Rajoana in the Patiala central jail here, following which he ended his hunger strike. Jail Superintendent Rajan Kapoor confirmed that Rajoana has ended his hunger strike. Rajoana, who began his fast unto death from Monday, had earlier turned down the SGPC’s request to end it. Longowal, along with Akali Dal MPs, had recently met Union Minister Rajnath Singh regarding Rajoana’s mercy petition.

Balwant Singh Rajaona (File Photo)

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court had in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the Beant Singh assassination case. Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012. However, the execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, by Patil after the SPGC filed the mercy petition. The President had forwarded the application to the Home Ministry but the later is yet to take any decision on it. Rajoana is currently lodged in execution cell of the Patiala central jail. Former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab, was assassinated by Dilawar Singh, a human bomb, at the high security Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.

While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first assassin failed. Rajoana, during the trial, had admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had in October 2010 upheld the death sentence for Rajoana, but changed the capital punishment given to Hawara to life imprisonment. Rajoana had refused to challenge the death sentence awarded to him. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 2012 had said it would go to any extent to save Rajoana and asked the SGPC “to take all possible legal and other steps” to secure clemency for him. — PTI

Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/death-row-convict-rajoana-ends-hunger-strike-after-meeting-with-sgpc-chief/623695.html (Accessed on 18 December 2018) 

BEANT'S ASSASSIN TARA TO CHALLENGE EXTRADITION TO INDIA

Jan 13, 2015

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Jagtar Singh Tara, the alleged assassin of ex-Punjab CM Beant Singh will challenge Thai Court's order to extradite him to India. The US based rights group “Sikhs For Justice” (SFJ) has retained Thai attorneys specializing in extradition cases to represent Tara before the court.

A Top Thai defense attorney filed his appearance on January 13 before Thai Criminal Court on behalf of Tara.

After Tara was arrested, A Thai court on January 6, ordered Tara’s extradition on the request of Indian authorities for his alleged role in August 1995 bombing.

A team of Thai attorneys On January 12 along with SFJ’s legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun met with Jagtar Singh Tara in Bangkok where he is being held in a high security prison. Thai extradition experts and US based rights group plan to challenge Tara's extradition to India on the grounds that Thailand is signatory to UN Convention against Torture which prohibits extradition of an individual to a country where he will be subjected to torture.

Jagtar Singh Tara in his message conveyed through SFJ legal advisor stated that “Beant who was responsible for genocide of Sikhs in Punjab is still considered hero by the Indian state” “He is ready to challenge the Indian judicial system which is always unjust, unfair and biased against Sikhs” added Tara.

According to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ, “Tara’s extradition to India will be in violation of UN Convention because if extradited he will possibly face death sentence in India. We will submit documentary evidence to Thai court proving ongoing torture on Sikh detainees in India”, added Pannun.

Beant Singh who was assassinated in August 1995 bombing was responsible for torture, disappearances and extra judicial killing of over 100,000 Sikhs during his tenure as Chief Minister of Punjab.

Source: http://www.panthic.org/articles/5563 [last accessed 06.02.2015]

Parkash Singh Badal hell-bent on release of terrorists, despite criticism

Manjeet Sehgal   |   Mail Today  |   Chandigarh, January 12, 2015 | UPDATED 10:49 IST

Despite facing widespread criticism, the Parkash Singh Badalled Punjab government seems to be going ahead with its agenda to secure premature release for convicted Khalistan militants who were sentenced to life imprisonment. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government has already moved the Supreme Court seeking its nod for exercising the premature release policy to free all lifers, most of them terrorists, who have completed their required sentence and were eligible for remission. In a major relief to the Punjab and Haryana governments, former terrorist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa was on Saturday forcibly lifted from Lakhnaur Sahib Gurdwara where he had been fasting for the last 58 days. He was admitted to the civil hospital by the Ambala police.

Khalsa has been seeking the release of seven Sikh prisoners, including those convicted for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995 and the 1993 New Delhi bomb blast case. The gurdwara where he was holding his fast-unto-death had become a chosen spot for antinational elements, who assembled there and shouted pro-Khalistan slogans. Earlier on Saturday Sikh organisations, including the hardliner groups, called Punjab shutdown to extend support to Khalsa. The shutdown call evoked a mixed response. The impact was felt in Amritsar and Ajnala, while life remained unaffected in other parts of the state, including Batala, Phagwara, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur.

The Amritsar district administration had deployed heavy police force in the city and other towns as a precautionary measure. The radical Sikhs protested in many parts of the state and demanded release of the Sikh prisoners. "We have demanded immediate release of the Sikh prisoners who are languishing in various jails. They should be released as per the government policy," Sikh Youth Federation Bhindranwale president Balwant Singh Gopala said. Khalsa,who began his indefinite hunger strike from November 14, 2014 in Ambala, sought the release of convicted terrorists Jagtar Singh Hawara, Paramjit Singh Bheora, Lakhwinder Singh alias Lakha, Gurmit Singh and Shamsher Singh. Khalsa's demand list also includes the release of 1993 Dehi bomb blast accused Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, who was awarded death sentence by a Delhi court. His death sentence was converted into life imprisonment by the apex court on medical grounds.

Khalsa had also expressed the desire to visit the Golden Temple Complex, but was not given permission. Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal in his December 24, 2014 letter had requested various state governments, including Delhi and Chandigarh for premature release of 13 convicts. Meanwhile, in a major twist to the issue, the Punjab government has disclosed that it had already moved the apex court seeking Sikh prisoners' release.

"The state government has filed the application in the SC through its counsel Jagjit Singh Chabbra on January 8," a spokesperson for the chief minister's office said. He said the application in the court had been moved upon the instruction of Punjab CM. He said the government has also sought permission to consider and decide applications of the life convicts seeking premature release in the interest of the justice.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/parkash-singh-badal-akali-dal-release-of-terrorists/1/412736.html [last accessed 06.02.2015]

Bhai Gurmit Singh released from Burail Jail on 28 day parol

Source: http://sikhsiyasat.net/2014/11/14/bhai-gurmit-singh-released-from-burail-jail-on-28-days-parole/ [last accessed 06.02.2015] 

Rajiv’s Killers Versus Afzal Guru

SRINAGAR, WEDNESDAY, 25 RABI-AL-THANI 1435 ; 26 FEBRUARY 2014 CE 

- RIYAZ AHMAD

The contrast also compares the two democracies, Tamil Nadu, J&K.

There were two developments that riveted our attention last week. And the mayhem in the state Assembly was not one of them despite the injury to a PDP legislator or the slapping of a marshal by one of the party’s legislators. One, was the commutation of the death sentence of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers to the life imprisonment by the Apex Court. And second the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s decision to release all the seven of them and the ensuing confrontation with centre. The clash made for a gripping political drama and heady television. But Kashmir was hooked for a different reason. 

One, that the killers of a former prime minister of India and a member of the ruling dynasty who were on death row for the past eleven years were granted a due recourse to law and their plea accepted by the court. Second, Tamil Nadu CM dramatically deciding to set them free and setting a three day deadline for the centre to respond. 

New Delhi went into a tizzy, objecting to the release. Supreme Court stayed the move but that was not what was important. The important thing was that even the killers of a prime minister of India, if they are not from Kashmir, can expect not only a fairer process of justice but even clemency with a Chief Minister’s support to boot. Contrast this with what happened to Muhammad Afzal Guru who, by Apex Court’s own order had a circumstantial link to the parliament attack. So he had to die to “satisfy the collective consciousness” of India. He was pulled out of the death row queue where he was at around number 30 and sent to gallows without his family getting a wind of it. He was told about the rejection of his mercy petition by the president only an hour before his death. And his mortal remains continue to be withheld from his family. 

And all the political class in the state has behaved as if they could do little about it. More so, the Chief Minister whose response has veered from publicly complaining about his advise against hanging being ignored by the centre to being kept in dark about the hanging itself. And ever since CM may have issued statements against the hanging, warned of a fallout in Kashmir and Afzal’s long term iconization for the new generation of Kashmiri youth, even seeking his mortal remains but there has never been an occasion when he has made us confident of his will or ability to do something about it. 

Unlike Tamil Nadu government, his government couldn’t get up the courage to pass the resolution on Afzal and nor does his government build a pressure or even make a case for the return of Afzal’s mortal remains. The truth is that behind the CM’s Afzal outrage – honestly felt or politically dictated – there has been a little veiled squeamishness about being too strongly identified with him. But no such defensiveness for Jayalalitha. Not also for Badal, who has BJP as an ally. Rajiv’s and Beant Singh’s killers respectively are not only an opportunity for political posturing and playing to their constituencies but also for some credible action which forces centre to rethink and revise its decision. 

The point here is not to fan an already deep sense of victimhood in Kashmir but to highlight a persisting democratic paradox in the state: the inability of the so called democratic representatives to adequately represent, respond or even play to the legitimate grievances and sentiments of their people. True, mainstream politics in the state cannot project the sentiment of Azadi but this was also never expected of them. Majority of the people who vote for them are conscious of this fact. But what they want from them is not only to deliver the good governance but also fight for their interests and rights and take an unambiguous stand when New Delhi seems to have discriminated against the state. 

And not only talk about it in no uncertain terms but be seen to act to undo it. But what we get is either apathy, a cryptic silence, may be sometimes a statement or two expressing an opinion or simply a show of silence. If anything, the case of Rajiv’s killers exposes the democracy in the state for what it is always suspected to be – a government by the people but obliged to if not representative of New Delhi. 

Source: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2014/Feb/26/rajiv-s-killers-versus-afzal-guru-8.asp [accessed 24 April 2014]

Balwant Singh Rajoana gets a reprieve as Centre bows to Akali pressure

TNN | Mar 29, 2012, 02.04AM IST
NEW DELHI: Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted for the assassination of Punjab CM Beant Singh, received an extraordinary reprieve three days before his death sentence was to be executed, with the Centre buckling under the high-pressure advocacy of the Akali Dal government. President Pratibha Patil accepted a clemency petition from Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday, a move that is seen to have the Centre's concurrence. The Badals came to Delhi at the behest the Akal Takht, the temporal seat of the Sikhs that directed the Punjab government to stall Rajoana's hanging.

This will be the third high profile death sentence to be subject to political pressure. The assassins of ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru being the other two. The decision to put Rajoana's execution on hold will put in motion a fresh process as the petition is sent by the Rashtrapati Bhawan to the home ministry for its consideration and advice.

The home ministry in its letter to the Punjab home department has said that as per procedure regarding mercy in death sentence cases, the execution has been stayed till the order of the Supreme Court or the President (whichever is later). Although India's recent vote against Sri Lanka relates to foreign policy, it was also a case of the government failing to resist domestic political pressure brought to bear by Tamil Nadu parties, including its ally DMK.

The Centre's decision comes in the wake of unrest in parts of Punjab, J&K with clashes between Sikh and right-wing Hindu groups. While the Akalis backed the plea, Congress also has not vociferously opposed it, despite Beant Singh having been a party leader, who was credited with providing sterling leadership that helped end terrorism in Punjab.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson said that the President had received Rajoana's clemency petition and sent to the union home ministry. "The President met the Punjab CM and took the petition. It has been sent to the home ministry for consideration," the official said. Rajoana is a Babbar Khalsa International terrorist convicted in the assassination of Beant Singh in 1995.

The petition moved by Sikh religious body SGPC and Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee forwarded by the Punjab CM to the President. Badal also met PM earlier in the day. Beant Singh had taken on Khalistani groups by steadfastly standing by former super-cop K P S Gill who was then director general of police in Punjab. Rajoana's co-conspirator Dilawar Singh, who was the human bomb, killed Beant Singh at the high security Punjab civil secretariat on August 31, 1995.

While jailed Jagtar Singh Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb in case the first assassin failed to kill Beant Singh. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had in October, 2010, had upheld the death sentence for Rajoana, but changed the capital punishment given to Hawara to life imprisonment. Rajoana had refused to challenge the death sentence awarded to him.

Earlier Human Rights Watch had called for a halt to the execution describing hanging as "inhuman punishment." "The death penalty is always wrong and the Indian government should immediately stop this execution," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Beyond that, executing Rajoana would merely continue the cycle of distrust between members of the Sikh community and the Indian state that has long divided communities." Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. "The Indian government has rightly not carried out executions for nearly a decade," Ganguly said. "It should now officially declare a moratorium, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes," she added.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Balwant-Singh-Rajoana-gets-a-reprieve-as-Centre-bows-to-Akali-pressure/articleshow/12447892.cms [accessed on 29th March 2012]