The Supreme Court, on March 3, declined to commute Balwant Singh Raojana’s death sentence to life imprisonment, leaving it to the Union Government to consider his mercy petition.
The delay by the Home Affairs Ministry in taking up Balwant Singh Rajoana’s mercy plea was noted by a bench led by Justice B.R. Gavai, which also included Justices Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol. The bench observed that this delay might indicate the Ministry’s reluctance to grant Rajoana life imprisonment. However, the judges added that the Ministry could still consider the plea at an appropriate time.
The former police officer Balwant Singh Rajoana was found guilty of his role in the murder of the former Chief Minister of the Punjab, Beant Singh, as well as sixteen other individuals. On August 31, 1995, Rajoana acted as the second human bomb in a conspiracy to kill the Congress leader outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh, in case the first one failed.
In 2007, a special CBI court sentenced Rajoana to death, and his execution was scheduled for March 31, 2012. However, on March 28, 2012, the Congress-led government stayed the execution after the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition with the President on his behalf.
The mercy petition filed by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee on Rajoana’s behalf was forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the then-President, but it has been pending since then.
The Union government and the CBI, who investigated the 1995 assassination case, have opposed Rajoana’s plea, arguing that he did not file the mercy plea himself and that such representations only came from organizations like the SGPC.
The Union government and the CBI also emphasized that the President has the final say in the matter. They further argued that the Ministry of Home Affairs’ decision in September 2019 was not final and did not confer any right on Rajoana. Additionally, they maintained that any decision on his clemency must wait for the outcome of the appeal filed by his co-accused, Hawara, which is still pending before the Supreme Court.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing Rajoana, argued that his client is entitled to have his sentence commuted based on the 2019 communication and his lengthy period on death row, which spans 15 years, along with a total of 26 years of incarceration. Rohatgi cited the case of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, another terror convict, whose life term was commuted by the Supreme Court in 2014 due to an undue delay by the government in deciding his mercy plea.
Rajoana is affiliated with the Shiromani Akali Dal, a political party that protested against his death sentence in 2012. His sister Kamaldeep Kaur also ran as a SAD candidate in the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-poll in 2022, but she finished fourth, even behind BJP candidate Kewal Dhillon.
Earlier this year, Rajoana distanced himself from the Quami Insaaf Morcha, a political party that seeks the early release of Sikh political prisoners.
Reported by Matrika Shukla, Image: Twitter @1984Tribute
