Balwant Singh Rajoana was found guilty in the Beant Singh assassination case in May, but the Supreme Court declined to reduce his death sentence to life in prison
Balwant Singh Rajoana (Photo: Twitter )
In a letter sent today, Balwant Singh Rajoana has asked the Akal Takht Jathedar to step in and retract the pleading for mercy that the SGPC had submitted about a decade ago. If the request is not dropped within the next ten days, Rajoana has vowed to go on a hunger strike. The plea is now with the President of India.
Balwant Singh Rajoana was found guilty in the Beant Singh assassination case in May, but the Supreme Court declined to reduce his death sentence to life in prison. Instead, it urged the Centre to consider Rajoana’s mercy request at a later time.
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Rajoana wrote a letter to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh stating that the mercy request, which has been waiting for the last 12 years, seemed to be of little concern to anybody in Delhi or Punjab. “I will be forced to go on a hunger strike if it is not rescinded within the next seven to ten days. “Going on a hunger strike is sad for someone who has been in jail for the last 28 years and is facing the death penalty,” the letter states. The letter, which was sent from Patiala’s Central Jail, says, “My request to you is to ask the SGPC to withdraw my mercy plea.”
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“The stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to defer the decision on the mercy petition is also a decision for the reasons given thereunder. It actually amounts to a decision declining to grant the same for the present,” a three-judge Bench had said.
“It is, however, directed that the competent authority in due course of time would again as and when deemed necessary, may deal with the mercy petition and take a further decision,” said the Bench, which, on March 2, reserved making a judgment on Rajoana’s plea for commuting his death sentence due to the Centre’s inability to reach a conclusion on his mercy petition, which was filed on March 25, 2012.
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