2 min readNew DelhiJun 19, 2013 04:24 AM IST
First published on: Jun 19, 2013 at 04:24 AM IST
Citing the bad physical and mental health of death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar,the office of the Delhi Lt Governor is learnt to have deferred his execution.
This decision,a source said,was taken after scrutiny of the report submitted by the medical board formed by the Delhi government to ascertain Bhullars condition. The file has been forwarded to the office of the Director General Prisons,Tihar Jail,the source said.
An objective,compassionate and humane view of the case has been taken after considering the deteriorating physical and mental health of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and it has been decided to defer the matter. This decision was taken after scrutinising the report submitted by the medical board. Subsequently,he will be examined by a medical board again and the matter will be re-examined, the source said.
In its report,the medical board is learnt to have stated that Bhullar suffers from severe depression with psychotic symptoms. The jail manual states that a death row convict has to be declared physically and mentally fit before execution.
The file stating the L-Gs views has been recently forwarded to the office of the DG,Tihar,which will now send it to the home ministry before it is finally sent to the Delhi government, the source said.
Bhullar was awarded capital punishment in 2001 after being convicted in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case. His wife Navneet Kaur,who has been waging a legal battle to get the sentence commuted,has repeatedly underlined that he is a psychiatric patient and has already suffered because of the delay in deciding his mercy petition.
Since 2010,Bhullar is being treated at the Institute for Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences in Delhi. In April this year,the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
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