Beant Singh’s family to move Supreme Court over commutation of Rajoana’s death sentence

The Centre has sparked a row with its in principle decision to commute the death sentence awarded to the Babbar Khalsa terrorist for the former Punjab Chief Minister’s assassination to life imprisonment.

Balwant Singh Rajoana. File

The family of slain Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh will challenge in the Supreme Court the Centre’s in principle decision to commute Balwant Singh Rajoana’s death sentence , the leader’s grandson said here on Tuesday.

The Centre has sparked a row with its decision to commute the death sentence awarded to the Babbar Khalsa terrorist for Beant’s assassination to life imprisonment.

Beant and 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh in August 1995.

“We will challenge the Centre’s decision in Supreme court,” Punjab MLA and Beant Singh’s grandson Gurkirat Singh Kotli told PTI .

“We are taking legal opinion on what grounds it will be challenged. One of the main grounds for challenging the Centre’s decision will be that Rajoana himself had never apologised and had never moved any mercy petition for commuting his death sentence,” he said.

 

Earlier, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, another grandson of the assassinated leader, had criticised the Centre’s decision.

Mr. Kotli, who is an All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and an MLA from Punjab’s Khanna, termed the Centre’s decision unfortunate and politically motivated.

“The Modi government should make it clear whether it is with peace-loving people or with those who want to vitiate the atmosphere,” the MLA said.

Mr. Kotli alleged that the Centre took the decision as Rajoana had appealed for votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal during the last Lok Sabha elections.

He claimed that Rajoana’s sister Kamaldeep Kaur had posted this appeal on her Facebook page.

A 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 to be hanged on March 31, 2012, but the Centre stayed the execution after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) submitted a mercy petition to the President.

The decision now to commute the sentence to life imprisonment comes weeks ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.