India News | SAD Leader Urges PM to Commute Death Sentence of Rajoana '
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Thursday urged the PM and the Union home minister to commute the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in the assassination case of former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
Chandigarh, Sep 29 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Thursday urged the PM and the Union home minister to commute the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in the assassination case of former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
The former state minister said Punjabis across the world feel that the commutation of Rajoana's death sentence has been delayed.
"Bhai Rajoana has been incarcerated for the past 26 years in an eight feet by eight feet cell without parole. Since he has completed a life sentence, he should be released immediately," Majithia said here.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's failure to take a decision so far on the plea that Balwant Singh Rajoana's death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment.
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Majithia said now the apex court has "asked the Centre to take a decision in the case". The central government should take the extraordinary conditions of the case into consideration and commute the death sentence, he said.
Majithia said not doing so would send a wrong signal to the Sikh community.
Referring to the Bilkis Bano case in which remission was granted to the convicts, Majithia said "a message should not go that there are different rules for minorities".
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 on August 31, 1995. A special court in July 2007 awarded death sentence to Rajoana in the case.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)