Supreme Court to take up Balwant Rajoana plea as sister demands closure
New Delhi, October 11: Supreme Court bench led by CJI Lalit considers death row convict Balwant Singh Rajaona's plea to commute death penalty for delay in considering his mercy plea. Court had asked Centre to provide its stand on his mercy plea in the former Punjab CM Beant Singh's assassination case.
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Senior lawyer Rohatgi, advocating Balwant Singh Rajaona said, “My client has been in jail since 26 years. I want to argue that I am worthy of getting life sentence commuted today itself. The first reason your lordships mentioned, is false- the letter by MHA. It is now 2022, 10 years. I have been on death row since 2007 till 2012. I don't want to beg them. This affidavit is nothing worth the paper it is written on. I'm accused of crime of a spy. You may hear my case today or tomorrow and be done with it.
CJI after hearing to the arguments observed, “There are two ways to look at it- that it's either execution of sentence or commutation. But the co-accused case is pending before us. We may list both the matters- your matter saying that let the death penalty be commuted. The other person, your co-accused, his appeal is a substantive appeal, 1st November; We’ll list both the matter on same day but to be heard seperately.”
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable and a pro-Khalistan militant, is currently in Patiala Central jail, awaiting the final decision on the commutation of his death penalty by the Government of India.
The convict, Balwant Singh Rajoana, was sentenced to death for the murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh who died in a bomb explosion in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
The Centre had decided on September 27, 2019, to commute the death penalty of Rajoana to a life sentence on the special occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. More than two years have passed but the decision is yet to be implemented. A Chandigarh court had, on July 27, 2007, awarded the death sentence to Rajoana which was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 12, 2010. Rajoana has not filed an appeal against the decision and instead filed a mercy petition before the President.
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-PTC News
