Days after seeking release of Balwant Singh Rajoana who is convicted in former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination case, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday requested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to ensure immediate release of Devinderpal S Bhullar, a 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict.
The SAD president, while writing to the Delhi chief minister on this issue, said it was a matter of concern that the Delhi State Sentence Review Board (SRB) had rejected the proposal for Prof Bhullar’s repeatedly.
“You yourself had during the recent Punjab Assembly election stated that you had directed the SRB to meet and reconsider its earlier decision to block Bhullar’s release. The fact that the opposite occurred during the meeting of the SRB on March 3 has raised a question mark on the commitment made by you in this context,” Badal said in the letter.
He said Bhullar’s release was being blocked repeatedly by the SRB despite the fact the Centre’s direction to give special remission to the prisoner was binding on the State government.
Appealing to the CM on behalf of Sikhs worldwide as well as all Punjabis to take note of these facts and intervene personally in the matter, Badal said “these facts also need to be presented to the SRB in the right perspective”.
Asserting that the quick release of the Sikh prisoner would consolidate peace and communal harmony in Punjab, Badal said the inordinate delay in this release had hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community as well as Punjabis at large.
“There is a growing demand from the community as well as Punjabis in general that Bhullar, who has been incarcerated for more than 26 years, be freed on humanitarian grounds keeping in view his worsening mental and physical health. This sentiment should be respected,” he added.