Balwant Singh Rajoana shoots off letter to home minister Amit Shah

Death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, in a fresh letter to Union home minister Amit Shah, has raised questions over the delay in deciding his mercy petition.

In his letter, Rajoana, who was convicted in former chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination case, has raked up the issue of remission granted to Bilkis Bano rapists and accused the government of going soft on the former president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment by female grapplers. He also questioned the Haryana government’s decision to grant the parole to rape convict Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

Rajoana, who is lodged in Patiala Central Jail, had earlier written letters to the President of India and Rajnath Singh when he was home minister from 2014 to 19.

Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012. The execution was, however, stayed on March 28, 2012, by the then Congress-led government at the Centre after SGPC filed a mercy petition with the President on Rajoana’s behalf. The then President forwarded the mercy plea to the MHA, which is still pending.

Rajoana’s reaction came weeks after Union home minister Amit Shah, without naming Rajoana, had defended the Centre’s stand on the mercy petition.

Shah, during the recently concluded winter session, had said that any offender who didn’t realise his/her mistake, express remorse, then “he or she does not deserve forgiveness.”

Rajoana accused the Centre of bias and said he has been inside the jail for 28 years, and his mercy petition has been pending for nearly 12 years.

“I am waiting for a decision on my mercy petition — which is lying before the home ministry. Contrary to this, gang rape convicts and murderers are getting remission and honoured by your party members. This shows that your justice is biased because the decisions are being taken after considering the religion and ideology of the convicts,” Rajoana said in his letter.

The letter to Shah comes a day after Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami had asked Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh to give more time to the Sikh body to act on the review petition of Rajoana. Dhami said correspondence with the Centre is ongoing, but it may take time for a decision in this regard. The Sikh clergy had told the SGPC that if the Centre does not commute the death sentence of Rajoana by December 31, 2023, then the Sikh body should reconsider its constitutional review petition.