The Supreme Court has confirmed the death penalty to Khalistani terrorist Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and refused to entertain his petition seeking review of the April 12 judgment.
‘No merit in review plea’
The same Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya, which then held that the petitioner had failed to make out a case for commutation to life imprisonment, said on Wednesday there was no merit in the review petition. Bhullar’s plea was that he had undergone great agony for 11 years awaiting the President’s decision on his mercy plea.
Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001 for plotting terror attacks on Punjab Senior Superintendent of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and Youth Congress leader M.S Bitta in 1993, in which nine people were killed.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Bhullar’s mercy plea. Press Council of India Chairperson Justice Markandey Katju had written to Mr. Mukherjee seeking pardon for Bhullar, stating the death-row convict had “some chronic psychiatric problem.”
The Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had also appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking commutation of the death sentence. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said the case deserved review because of Bhullar’s deteriorating mental health and for communal harmony in Punjab and the rest of the country.
