BJP Punjab in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has assured Sikh bodies of a “positive development” soon from the Centre's side on Sikh 'political' prisoners who were to be released as per a 2019 Union government notification. This was after the Sikh organisations approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. The notification On October 11, 2019, the Union government issued a notification on the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, for release of eight Sikh prisoners and the commutation of death sentence of one to life imprisonment. According to this notification, the eight to be released were Lal Singh, Nand Singh, Subeg Singh, Balbir Singh, Waryam Singh, Harjinder Singh @ Kali, Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, and Gurdeep Singh Khera. Balwant Singh Rajoana's death sentence was to be commuted to life. The demand Sikh bodies have pointed out that three of the eight named – Balbir, Waryam and Harjinder - were wrongly mentioned in the 2019 notification as they were already out by then. Three more, Lal Singh, Nand Singh, Subeg Singh, were released after the notification. However, they said, Bhullar and Khera continue to be in jail, while Rajoana is still on death row, and demanded that the government implement the notification immediately. The prisoners Devinderpal Singh Bhullar (55) has been in jail since 1995. The main accused in the 1993 blast outside the Youth Congress headquarters in Delhi that killed nine, he was arrested after deportation from Germany. He was awarded the death sentence in 2001 by a trial court. In 2012, he was diagnosed with depression and shifted to a hospital in Delhi. In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence to life. The next year, he was shifted to Amritsar hospital on the family’s plea. Since 2016, the Punjab government has allowed him to come out on parole. Gurdeep Singh Khera, 59, has spent the longest period in jail among the prisoners in the notification. He was arrested in 1990 in connection with two bomb blasts, at New Delhi and in Karnataka, and sentenced to two life terms under TADA by a Delhi court and a Karnataka court. While in the Delhi case he got remission in 2011 under the Sheila Dikshit government, he remains in jail under the Karnataka case. In June 2015, he was transferred to Amritsar jail on humanitarian grounds as his family lives there. He has been out on regular parole. Balwant Singh Rajoana (57) is a convict in the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh. He had admitted his crime and after he was given the death sentence, did not appeal to a higher court. He is currently in Patiala jail. The other accused in the same case are on life imprisonment, but he is the only one who was awarded the death sentence because he admitted his crime and did not seek any pardon. The Sikh bodies have in fact demanded the release of three others convicted in the case, Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh, who have served more than 25 years in prison. All three have come out on regular parole since 2013. BJP leader Shekhawat said their first priority was to implement the 2019 notification of the government and that other demands will be seen later. In the run-up to polls, political parties in Punjab have traded charges over the release of Bhullar, with Akalis accusing the AAP government in Delhi of delaying his release. AAP national convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal recently said he had called for a meeting of the Sentence Review Board, which looks after such issues, to consider this, after which the matter would be put up before the Lieutenant Governor. Newsletter | Click to get the day's best explainers in your inbox
