Withdraw mercy plea or else will go on hunger strike, says Balwant Singh Rajoana
In his two-page letter, a copy of which is with HT, Balwant Singh Rajoana said that there has been no decision on the plea even after 12 years
Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, on Tuesday, wrote a letter to the Akal Takht jathedar to direct the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to withdraw the mercy plea filed with the President of India for commuting death penalty to a life sentence.
Rajoana, who is lodged in Patiala Central Jail, threatened that he would go on a hunger strike if the plea wasn’t withdrawn. The letter, written by Rajoana, was shared by his sister Kamaldeep Kaur, who met him on Tuesday.
On August 31, 1995, 17 people, including the chief minister Beant Singh, were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh. Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in the explosion. A special CBI court in July 2007 had awarded the death sentence to Rajoana.
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. Thereafter, then President forwarded the mercy plea to the MHA, which is still pending.
In his two-page letter, a copy of which is with HT, Rajoana said that there has been no decision on the plea even after 12 years. Rajoana further said that the plea has become a victim of political conspiracies, betrayal, cunningness, and opportunism. Rajoana stated that heads of the Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD), SGPC, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DGMC), and other religious organisations haven’t been able to help him.
“The political conspiracies, betrayal, and opportunism are not part of my life. SGPC should immediately be ordered to take back the plea which is before the President. Nothing can be more regrettable than an inmate, who is lodged inside jail for 28 years, has to go on hunger strike to take back his plea,” Rajoana said in his letter to Akal Takht jathedar.
