SGPC President Arrives to Meet Rajoana: Patiala Jail Administration Grants Permission; Claims Hearing in SC will not take place on October 15.
Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami, the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), has come to meet with Balwant Singh Rajoana, the man behind the murder of former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who is currently being held at Patiala Jail. According to the President, the Supreme Court will not hear the appeal to commute Rajoana’s death sentence to life in prison on October 15. We have postponed (or adjourned) this hearing.
Around 10:30 AM today, President Dhami came to the jail. Former Secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal, Bhagwant Singh Sial, Surjit Ghari, and Bhag Singh were all with him. There are currently no details on what the SGPC President will talk about with Rajoana while she is incarcerated.
Supreme Court asks: ‘Why has Balwant Singh Rajoana not been hanged till now?’
After the government refers to the Beant Singh assassination as a “serious offence”, the SC asks the Centre, “Why has Rajoana not been hanged yet?”
The Supreme Court has questioned the national government about the delay in granting Balwant Singh Rajoana’s mercy appeal. Rajoana has been on death row since 2007 for the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister at the time.
Beant Singh and 17 Other People Died
On August 31, 1995, a bomb went off outside the Secretariat in Chandigarh, killing then-Chief Minister Beant Singh and 17 others. In this instance, Rajoana was given a death sentence for conspiracy in August and July of 2007, but political pressure caused the punishment to be postponed.
The hanging of Rajoana was supposed to take place on March 21, 2012; however, it was cancelled because of widespread opposition in Punjab. On Rajoana’s behalf, the Sikh religious group Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) petitioned the Supreme Court for mercy, but as of right now, no ruling has been made.
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