No clemency drive in Punjab but 3 pardons

Sandeep had been awarded life-term in 2004 for allegedly shooting dead Harpal Singh 24 and Rasal Singh 26 at their farm on October 30, 1998, along with his two accomplices Jagga Singh and Monty. His sentence was remitted by the Governor following a mercy appeal by his mother Rajinder Kaur.

Additional Director General of Police Jails, Punjab, H.R. Chadha told The Indian Express that the Congress government had granted three pardons in the last one year, but before this there wasn8217;t a single pardon in almost a decade. The SAD-BJP government did not let off any convict during 1997-2002.

The first two pardons were granted last October when the Governor remitted the sentences of two DSPs 8212; Swaran Das and Jaspal Singh. While Dass was at that time serving his sentence, Jaspal was out on bail. It was the first time that any police officer of the state was pardoned.

Sawaran Das was given life-imprisonment for the abduction and murder of the brother of a terrorist from Jalandhar while he was posted as an inspector with CIA staff in Hoshiarpur. He was serving his sentence in Hoshiarpur for six years when his wife filed a mercy plea citing her large family of five daughters and two sons.

Jaspal Singh, a decorated police officer, was convicted and sentenced to seven-year imprisonment for abduction and death in custody of one Amrik Singh while he was posted as a station house officer at Patra.