Author Amandeep Sandhu visited Balwant Singh Rajoana's village in Punjab and found that Rajoana Kala stands by the death row convict. She shares her experiences with Vicky Nanjappa
The execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a co-accused in the killing of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995, is taking political connotations in the state even as top leadership of main parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress treaded cautiously on the issue here in Chandigarh.
The Supreme Court has questioned the delay in the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh, despite the Centre calling it a 'serious offence'.
Following the hanging of Afzal Guru, Congress MP and grandson of late former Chief Minister Beant Singh, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Monday demanded the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the convict on death row for assassinating Beant Singh.
Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict on death row in connection with the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has said that he did not want anyone to defend him.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday said his government will take all possible legal steps pertaining to death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana. "My government has been taking advice from legal experts. All possible legal steps will be initiated pertaining to Rajoana's case," he told reporters. On Friday, the Sikh clergy directed him and Shiromani Guru Prabhandhak Committee head Avtar Singh Makkar to make efforts to save Rajoana.
Scores of Sikh protesters gathered at Lal Chowk in the city centre in summer capital Srinagar to protest against the death sentence to Balwant Singh Rajoana, the assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
Following intelligence reports that there could be trouble following hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana on March 31, the prime accused in the 1995 Beant Singh murder case, the Prakash Singh Badal government has put the entire state on high alert to deal with any untoward incident and have directed the state police to maintain law and order.
The home ministry will examine on merit the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced to death for assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and it will be submitted to President Pratibha Patil for a final decision.
The hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, was on Wednesday stayed by the Centre following a mercy petition.
In a major crackdown against radical Sikhs and their organisations, Punjab police on Wednesday night detained several leaders and activists and banned three protest marches to be held on Thursday in support of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convict in the Beant Singh assassination case.
Talking exclusively to rediff.com, Rajoana's sister Kamaljit Kaur said: "He stands for Khalistan and we support him. We will stand with him through thick and thin. My brother is in high spirits and he is ready for any eventuality."
In a criticism of Punjab government spearheading the campaign for mercy to death convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, the Supreme Court on Thursday virtually deprecated its action saying he was convicted in a case of broad daylight killing of a chief minister.
Hundreds of Sikhs, including a large number of women and university students participated in a protest on Friday outside the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, California, to show support to Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who was sentenced to capital punishment in the case of murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass any order on a clemency plea for Balwant Singh Rajoana, who had been awarded the death penalty for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. A bench of justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra said it cannot pass any direction as the convict has not filed any petition before it and the petitioner Abhinav Ramakrishna has no locus standi to plead on his behalf.
The Supreme Court of India has directed the President to consider the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the 1995 assassination case of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The court gave the President two weeks to decide on the plea. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 for his role in the bombing that killed Beant Singh and 16 others. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on his behalf in 2012.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol said the competent authority will decide the plea of the convict seeking mercy.
Backed by ruling Akali Dal, the SGPC, apex religious body of Sikhs, will file a clemency appeal before the President for Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is on death row for the 1995 killing of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, even as ally BJP steered clear of the issue.
The apex court was also unhappy over the submission of the counsel for the Centre that the matter be adjourned.
The hanging of Beant Singh assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana would not take place on March 31 as ordered by a local court, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Monday.
As the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Punjab government pitched for a pardon for him, Balwant Singh Rajoana, who has been convicted for the assassination of former chief minister Beant Singh, today described Akali leaders as "cheaters" and asked them not to seek clemency for him.
A day-long bandh called by radical Sikh outfits to protest the proposed execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the Beant Singh killing case, disrupted normal life in parts of Punjab on Wednesday.
Amid separatist slogans and "honouring" of death row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana, the 28th anniversary of Operation Bluestar to flush out militants from Sikh holy shrine the Golden Temple, was on Wednesday observed at Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat, an event from which Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal kept away.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said the chief minister had told him that he or his government had nothing to do with it as it was being done by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhik Committee. Congress leaders disputed Badal's claims and told Chidambaram that the SGPC was under direct control of Badal's party, the Shiromani Akali Dal.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a commitment to the Sikh community on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in 2019 that the sentence of all Sikh detainees serving life sentences would be commuted and that the death sentence of Bhai Rajoana would be commuted to life.'
BJP leader Amit Shah in a poll rally last month had asked people of Ludhiana to send Ravneet Singh Bittu to Parliament, promising them that he will make him a 'bada aadmi' (a big man).
The Chandigarh police lodged the FIR on Wednesday late night in connection with the clash in which around 30 policemen, including the Rapid Action Force personnel, were injured while several police vehicles were damaged.
For Sikhs, they say, honour is the bottom line; and whatever the state of the SAD's political fortunes today, arrogance will not be helpful in the negotiation.
There are clear signs that the party is re-starting its journey to relevance by going back to its core Panthic agenda, on the basis of which it was founded over a century ago, reports Sai Manish.
Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar's Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat after defeating his nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party's Gurmail Singh, by a margin of 5,822 votes.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
Counting of votes for the bypolls in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand will be taken up on Sunday.
If we accept that there is a challenge in Punjab today, any realistic progress can only be made if the rest of the country, especially the government and the ruling party, engage with this sense of grievance, points out Shekhar Gupta
'Afzal Guru was convicted of supporting the attack on India's Parliament. The Supreme Court said "the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded" to Guru.' 'Till we can think up similar justifications for hanging non-Muslims, I do not think we can delink terrorism from religion in our minds,' argues Aakar Patel.
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