Jagtar Singh Tara. (Express Archive/File)
A Chandigarh court Saturday sentenced Jagtar Singh Tara (43), pronounced guilty the previous day in the 1995 Beant Singh assassination case, to life imprisonment and imposed on him a fine of Rs 35,000.
While CBI’s counsel S K Saxena sought either death sentence or life imprisonment with no parole or remission for Tara, his counsel Simranjit Singh did not seek any leniency from the court.
Though Tara expressed remorse in the open court for the death of 16 innocent people killed along with Beant Singh, he said he had no regret for the former CM’s assassination in which he has already confessed his role.
The court order read, “… At present, the age of Jagtar Singh Tara is 43 years. At that time (of the incident), he was around 20 years only. He has expressed remorse regarding the killing of innocent persons. He was not present at the time of incident, having left the place before the incident…”
The order read, “Keeping in view the totality of the circumstances, including the convict’s age and antecedents, this Court is of the view that the case does not fall under the rarest of rare case and..not a matter where capital punishment should be imposed.”
On Saturday, Tara’s cousin sister, sister-in-law and three nephews attended the hearing. “We respect the court order. We talked to Tara and he has no regrets,” one of them said after the hearings.
Beant Singh was killed in a bomb blast outside Punjab and Haryana secretariat on August 31, 1995. The blast had killed 16 others, including Punjab Police constable Dilawar Singh, who acted as a human bomb.
Chandigarh Police arrested nine persons, including Tara, while six others were declared proclaimed offenders by the court.