KLF terrorist Bhullar will not be executed in present health condition, Centre tells SC

In the wake of the development, Bhullar will get two weeks to put up his fresh mercy plea before the President Pranab Mukherjee.

On February 01, the Supreme Court had stayed the execution of Bhullar and sought to know from the Central and Delhi governments why his death sentence should not be commuted because of the delay in deciding the mercy plea, and in view of his mental illness.

Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in Delhi in September 1993, which killed nine people and injured 25 others, including then Youth Congress president M S Bitta.

In a ruling in January, the Supreme Court had commuted the death sentences of 15 convicts over delays in carrying out an execution are grounds for reducing the penalty. The court had also said that mental illness such as schizophrenia could make a convict eligible for a reduced sentence.

In December last, the report by the medical board stated that Bhullar, who has been admitted in a mental facility since 2010, had shown “only minimal improvement in his psychiatric condition” and that his psychotic symptoms had continued.

Bhullar had applied to the President for clemency in January 2003; his request was rejected eight years later. Last year, a Supreme Court bench also rejected his plea for mercy, after which he filed another petition for a review.