New Delhi: A three judge-bench, headed by Justices B R Gawai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, refused to provide relief to Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana, seeking commutation of death term to life term.
The Supreme Court has asked the Home Ministry to decide on the mercy plea. Rajoana was convicted for killing former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
In September 2019, the Union Home Ministry officials had announced the central government’s decision to commute the death sentence of Rajoana to life imprisonment. The decision was taken as a “humanitarian gesture" on the occasion of 550th birth celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev.
Rajoana was convicted in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was then part of the Narendra Modi government, had said the decision of commutation of death sentence would go a long way in assuaging the “hurt" feelings of the Sikh community who had to go through “unspeakable repression and humiliation during those dark days" when Punjab was pushed into terrorism.
