‘No pardon given’: Amit Shah in Lok Sabha on Balwant Singh Rajoana

The home ministry subsequently wrote to the Chandigarh administration and the Punjab government on Rajoana’s death sentence being commuted, and eight other Sikh prisoners in jails for cases dating back to the Sikh insurgent movement of the 1980s being released.

Confusion prevailed over the status of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the killer of Congress leader Beant Singh, who was Punjab chief minister when he was assassinated in 1995, with Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday saying in response to a question in Parliament that the government had not “pardoned” him.

**EDS: TV GRAB** New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi (PTI)

The question, asked by Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, a grandson of Beant Singh, specifically mentioned Rajoana’s death sentence, and Shah’s response -- “don’t go by media reports, no pardon has been given” -- raised eyebrows because the home ministry had indicated three months ago that the death sentence was being commuted as a humanitarian gesture to coincide with Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary.

The home ministry subsequently wrote to the Chandigarh administration and the Punjab government on Rajoana’s death sentence being commuted, and eight other Sikh prisoners in jails for cases dating back to the Sikh insurgent movement of the 1980s being released. The Rajaona case comes under the Chandigarh administration, although he is in a Punjab jail. A spokesperson for the Punjab government confirmed receiving the communication from the Union home ministry in October.

They said that reports about Rajoana’s death sentence being commuted were “taken at face value by the Sikh community because they were never contradicted by the home ministry”.

Badal said his party believes “this is a deserving case for clemency as Rajoana has spent more than 23 years in prison without parole”, and that it would continue to work towards achieving that.

The home ministry did not clarify the minister’s statement in Parliament, although a government official said Shah may have meant that while Rajoana’s death sentence was being commuted, he would still spend his life in prison.

Rajoana, a former Punjab police constable, was convicted of his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat that killed Beant Singh and 16 others in 1995. A special court in July 2007 awarded him death along with another militant Jagtar Singh Hawara. Rajoana, a Babbar Khalsa militant, was supposed to be the second human bomb in case the first one failed to kill the Congress leader.

Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012, but his execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, after Sikh religious body SGPC filed a mercy petition.

Badal termed Shah’s comment “very unfortunate” and said a party delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union home minister to take up the matter with them.