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Decongesting jails: Devender Pal Bhullar released on 42-day parole
In a bid to decongest jails following coronavirus outbreak, the Amritsar Central Jail authorities on Saturday released Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted under
In a bid to decongest jails following coronavirus outbreak, the Amritsar Central Jail authorities on Saturday released Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted under the now-scrapped Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, in connection with a terror attack on the then Youth Congress chief Maninderjeet Singh Bitta in 1993, on a six-week parole.
“Bhullar has been given early parole due to coronavirus. This leave will be deducted from his regular parole,” said Arshdeep Singh Gill, superintendent of Amritsar jail.
Bhullar was convicted and awarded the death penalty in 2001 by a TADA court for triggering a bomb blast in New Delhi in September 1993, which killed nine persons and injured 17 others, including Bitta.
Bhullar’s death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment by Supreme Court in 2014 after it concluded that there was an inordinate delay on the part of the President in deciding Bhullar’s mercy plea.
This September 2019, the Centre decided to release eight Sikh prisoners, including Bhullar, on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. The government had said that it was granting special remission to eight prisoners.
Opposing the release of Bhullar, Bitta in his petition alleged that Bhullar had been holding durbars within jail premises because of his political nexus.
In December 2019, a bench of the Supreme Court led-by justice RF Nariman directed the Union government to maintain status quo on the release of Bhullar.
“Till now, we have released 529 inmates and the process of releasing more is underway,” said the jail superintendent.
Some of the inmates have been released on parole while some have been granted interim bails. Having a capacity to accommodate 2,200 prisoners, the Amritsar jail has 3,400 inmates.
