Rajoana’s sister moves HC against his hanging

CHANDIGARH: Twenty-two years after the then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated, a petition seeking directions to commute the death sentence of convict Balwant Singh Rajoana into life imprisonment has been moved in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Rajoana's sister Kamaldeep Kaur has sought the commutation on grounds of "excessive and unreasonable delay" in carrying out the death sentence and the consequent "irreparable mental agony and suffering" that his family has suffered during this period. She has submitted that her brother has suffered much physical and mental torture during the two-decade-long imprisonment.

Beant Singh was killed by a suicide bomber at the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Rajoana had reportedly tied a belt loaded with explosives on Dilawar Singh, who had blown himself up killing Singh and 18 others. He was arrested on January 14, 1996.

A special CBI court had awarded the death sentence to Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara, both members of Babbar Khalsa International on August 1, 2007.

While Hawara's death sentence was commuted in October 2010 by the Punjab and Haryana high court, Rajoana refused to appeal against his sentence. Rajoana's death sentence was stayed on March 28, 2012, after the Union home ministry intervened in the matter on the request of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.

The top Sikh body has also approached the President's office with a mercy plea, which is pending. The high court will hear Kamaldeep's petition on November 2.