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Journalism of Courage
Last month, it was reported that the President of India had commuted the death sentence awarded to Balwant Singh Rajoana, who was convicted in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995. Singh was killed in a suicide bomb attack by Dilawar Singh. Rajoana was the backup option in case Dilawar failed. The explosion killed 16 people apart from Beant Singh.
A resident of Rajoana Kalan village in Ludhiana district, Rajoana was a police constable who had joined the Punjab Police on October 1, 1987. He was sympathetic to the views of Babbar Khalsa International. He justified Beant Singh’s assassination, blaming the CM for “extra-judicial” killings of Sikh youth. It was he who tied the bombs on Dilawar’s body. He is currently lodged in Patiala Central Jail.
In his judicial confession recorded under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code on January 22 and 23, 1996, Rajoana stated: “Judge Sahib, Beant Singh assumed himself [to be the] angel of peace after killing thousand innocent people, compared himself with Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Ram Ji, thereafter we had decided to killed Chief Minister Sh Beant Singh”.
Rajoana had also expressed deep anguish over Operation Blue Star and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. He was angry about the “full liberty” given to agencies and police to “kill” young innocent Sikhs. He had also stated that these atrocities were inflicted by the Chief Minister of Punjab at the behest of “agencies in Delhi”.
Read | Possible relief to Rajoana: In his village, family hopes for a Diwali reunion after 24 years
Punjab Police arrested Rajoana in December 1995, and a special CBI court in Chandigarh awarded him the death penalty on July 27, 2007. It also gave the death penalty to Jagtar Singh Hawara, and life imprisonment to Gurmit Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Shamsher Singh.
Did he challenge the death penalty?
No. Rajoana didn’t even engage a lawyer during the trial. Rajoana had stated: “Yes, I was involved in this murder. I have no repentance of involvement in this murder. I and Bhai Dilawar Singh prepared this bomb”.
On August 10, 2009, he asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice for his death penalty case to be considered separate from that of his co-accused, who had challenged the conviction by the trial court. Rajoana had said the death sentence “for this act is justice” and a blessing, and refused to bow before such a “worthless system”.
“How can I say that I am innocent and why should I engage any advocate when my conscience does not allow me to do so,” he had stated in a letter to the High Court.
What happened thereafter?
Rajoana’s hanging was scheduled on March 31, 2012. But resentment and anger in some sections of the population led to the Punjab government, then headed by Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, making efforts to stop it. On March 28, 2012, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition before the President, and the Union Home Ministry ordered a stay on his execution.
First in 2016 and then in 2018, Rajoana went on hunger strike in Patiala Central Jail, demanding a decision on the mercy petition filed by the SGPC. He ended his five-day hunger strike in 2018 after SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal assured him that his petition will be taken up expeditiously.
Also read | Beant Singh’s kin to move SC if Centre commutes death penalty
What is the political fallout of his death sentence being commuted?
Even before the announcement, political posturing over the issue had intensified. Ravneet Singh Bittu, the Congress Member of Parliament and grandson of the slain Punjab CM, has been mincing no words in attacking the government at the Centre. The current Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress, has distanced himself from the issue, saying the state government had no role in it. But he has also said that at a personal level, he is against the death penalty. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunil Jakhar has described the move as the BJP’s attempt to break free from the Akalis, and to establish itself as a separate entity in Punjab. The Punjab BJP leadership has stayed largely silent on this issue.
Has there been action in the case of any other Sikh prisoner?
CM Amarinder Singh has said that a list of 17 Sikh prisoners (including Rajoana), who had served 14 years or more in prison, was given to the Centre for consideration. It has been reported that eight of these prisoners would be freed in November, but there is no clarity on their identities. The original 17 are believed to include Sikh prisoners lodged in jails outside Punjab as well.
As per a recent list prepared by the Punjab government, the cases that have been taken up with the Centre for premature release include that of TADA convict Lal Singh (63), who is lodged in Nabha Maximum Security Jail and has undergone an actual sentence of over 26 years (over 31 years with remission).
Lal Singh’s case was taken up for early release on February 2018. In September last year, a conduct report was sent to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The Centre subsequently sought a copy of the representation of the convict which was sent in July this year.
The case of another TADA convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, has also been sent for premature release. Bhullar, who was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail and from there to a government facility for psychiatric treatment, has spent over 23 years in prison. His premature release case was taken up with the Delhi government.
The case of TADA convict Gurdeep Singh Khaira, who is undergoing life imprisonment, has also been taken up. Khaira has spent more than 29 years in prison and is currently lodged in Amritsar Central Jail after his transfer from a jail in Karnataka.
Other convicts whose cases have been taken up for premature release include Subeg Singh who was sentenced to life in a murder case and has served more than 24 years in prison; he is currently lodged in Patiala Central Jail. Then there is Nand Singh — convicted for life in the same case with Subeg Singh — who has served over 23 years, and is currently lodged in Patiala Central Jail.
