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SC defers Beant Singh assassin Hawara’s plea for Punjab prison transfer based on IB note
The Intelligence Bureau indicated that the move will have a “huge impact” on the Punjab assembly elections
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred hearing a plea by Babbar Khalsa terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, undergoing life imprisonment for the 1995 assassination of former chief minister Beant Singh, seeking transfer from Delhi’s Tihar jail to a Punjab prison after inputs from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) indicated that the move will have a “huge impact” on the assembly elections in the state due next year. The matter will now be heard after February 2027.
Hawara sought to be shifted to Punjab, where his 90-year-old mother and family stay. The court last month sought an IB view after the Delhi and Punjab governments and the Chandigarh administration expressed reservations about accepting the demand.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale said that normally they would have no difficulty in considering this request. “But what the agency has said is very damning,” it said after going through an IB note.
The court said the note says it will have a huge impact on the elections, especially in the present scenario when the issues are alive here and abroad.
Senior advocate S Muralidhar, appearing for Hawara, said if the election is the reason, the court may keep this back. “This may be heard after three months.”
Muralidhar told the court that he did not have access to what the IB report says, but believes that the jails in Punjab are as secure as Tihar, to which the Union government cannot object.
The bench posted the matter after February, when the elections are expected to be over. In his petition, Hawara said that his mother is of advanced age and sought parole to visit his family.
The court last month cited reservations expressed by Punjab and Chandigarh administrations and noted the court order should not create any further problems. It allowed the Union government to seek IB inputs.
Hawara’s lawyers earlier argued that Hawara was a young man of 21 at the time of Beant Singh’s assassination. They added that he has since realised the consequences of his action.
The Union government submitted that Hawara has been convicted in six cases and was involved in a jailbreak in January 2004, by digging a tunnel while he was in Burail Jail (Chandigarh). He escaped and was subsequently arrested.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann wrote to the governor for granting Hawara a 10-day parole on humanitarian grounds.
Hawara was convicted of a bomb blast outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, which killed Beant Singh and 16 others.
In 2010, the Punjab and Haryana high court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, ordering that he shall remain in jail for the remainder of his life. An appeal against the order is pending in the Supreme Court. The Delhi high court rejected Hawara’s request for shifting him to a Punjab jail.
