Decision on release of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar from Tihar jail likely today

In the run-up to the Punjab assembly elections, there was a growing clamour for Bhullar’s release with several groups petitioning different political parties, particularly the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) because the Tihar jail, where Bhullar was lodged, comes under the administrative jurisdiction of the AAP government in Delhi.

The seven-member Sentence Review Board (SRB) will meet on Wednesday to discuss the premature release of at least 100 prisoners, including Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, officials aware of the development said. They added that the meeting will be held in the afternoon at the Delhi Secretariat.

The 57-year-old convict is a prisoner of Tihar, but has been lodged in Punjab’s Amritsar jail since 2015 due to mental health issues. Bhullar was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011 in the 1993 Delhi bomb blasts case. (Representative image/HT Archive)

In the run-up to the Punjab assembly elections, there was a growing clamour for Bhullar’s release with several groups petitioning different political parties, particularly the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) because the Tihar jail, where Bhullar was lodged, comes under the administrative jurisdiction of the AAP government in Delhi.

The 57-year-old convict is a prisoner of Tihar, but has been lodged in Punjab’s Amritsar jail since 2015 due to mental health issues. Bhullar was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011 in the 1993 Delhi bomb blasts case. In March 2014, however, the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment owing to his ill health, and a delay in the trial.

“Last week, we got a message from the office of Delhi home minister(Satyendar Jain) about the SRB meeting on March 2. There are many prisoners for review and Bhullar is one of them,” a state home department official confirmed.

In the backdrop of Bhullar’s family and many groups blaming the Delhi government for delaying Bhullar’s release, the AAP has maintained that other parties were politicising the issue, and has clarified that SRB is not a Delhi government body but comprises of representatives from the judiciary, police, prison, and the state government.

The AAP is a key contender in the recently concluded Punjab assembly polls, and was the main opposition in the outgoing assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal is among key political figures from Punjab who have pushed for Bhullar’s early release.

Bhullar’s case was put up for consideration twice before the SRB -- on February 28, 2020 and on December 11, 2020 -- but was rejected by the committee on both occasions.

SRB is headed by the Delhi home minister as its chairperson, and has six other members -- Tihar’s director general, Delhi’s home secretary, Delhi’s law secretary, a district judge, a senior Delhi Police officer, and the director of the Delhi social welfare department. The seven members take a vote after discussing the case of each prisoner. The board sends its report to the Delhi lieutenant governor, who is the final authority to approve or deny a prisoner’s premature release.

Bhullar has completed at least 24 years in prison, and is undergoing life imprisonment in FIR 316/1993 registered at the Parliament Street police station under sections of murder (IPC 302) and those under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.