The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jyoti Kler granted two-day interim bail to Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh in the 36-year-old case
MORE THAN three decades after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane that later made a forced landing in Lahore, the trial of two of the five hijackers — facing sedition charges — began in a Delhi court Tuesday. The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jyoti Kler granted two-day interim bail to Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh in the 36-year-old case. The counsel for the accused said they had already served a life sentence in Pakistan for hijacking the plane.
They appeared in the court for the first time after Delhi Police filed a fresh chargesheet in a Delhi court on September 29, 2011 against them and three others involved in the hijacking under sedition charges. The court had issued non-bailable warrants against the accused, which were never executed. They were charged under sections 121 (waging war against Government of India), 121A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state), 124A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Satnam and Tejinder had approached the Delhi High Court in December 2012, filing a criminal writ petition to seek the quashing of the supplementary chargesheet.
The Delhi High Court on May 18, 2017 vacated the trial court order. It ordered Section 82 CrPC proceedings against the absconding accused persons and summoned Tejinder and Satnam to appear and seek bail and face trial in the case. The court ordered the accused to appear before the court on July 18 for trial. While granting two day-interim bail on Tuesday, the court ordered the investigating officer to submit a report in the case and fixed the matter for hearing on July 20.
Tejinder and Satnam, along with Gajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh and Karan Singh, on September 29, 1981, hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from New Delhi to Srinagar and forced it to land in Pakistan. They sought release of Damdami Taksal head Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who was arrested in a murder case, release of Sikh prisoners and compensation to Sikh demonstrators killed in police firing on September 20, 1981. They were arrested by the Pakistan police and given life term by a court there, said a Dal Khalsa spokesperson.
