New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, deferred hearing on a plea by Babbar Khalsa terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, seeking transfer to a priaon in Punjab.
Hawara, housed in Tihar Jail, is serving a life sentence for the killing of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.
The Court deferred the hearing after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) informed it that the terrorist’s transfer at the moment could impact the upcoming state elections.
He also falls in the high-risk category and may not be transferred to Punjab, the IB told the top court.
Following the submission, the bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice P B Varale described the agency’s report as “damning”. Following the court’s observation, senior advocate S Muralidhar, appearing for Hawara, submitted: “If elections are a concern, this may be taken up after three months.”
The Court subsequently posted the matter for hearing in February next year.
Elections for the 117-member Punjab assembly are due early next year.
The Delhi government had earlier been asked by the Court to seek IB inputs on Hawara’s plea to be moved to a Punjab jail.
Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Delhi government, cautioned that shifting Hawara could increase his chances of escape, citing a ministry of home affairs advisory on high-risk prisoners. She also highlighted an affidavit from the Punjab government warning that the transfer could trigger law-and-order issues in the state, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Hawara was involved in the blast at the Chandigarh civil secretariat entrance that killed Beant Singh and 16 others. He was sentenced to death by a trial court in March 2007. The Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted it to life imprisonment without release in October 2010. Appeals against the verdict remain pending in the Supreme Court.
While housed at the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh on January 22, 2004, Hawara, along with Paramjit Singh Bheora, Jagtar Singh Tara, and murder convict Devi Singh, escaped by digging a 100-foot tunnel. Hawara and Bheora were re-arrested within two years, while Tara was later caught in Thailand. Devi Singh remains at large.
In his petition, the Khalistani terrorist argued that except for the 2004 jailbreak, his prison conduct over the last 19 years has been unblemished, and no cases remain pending against him in Delhi. He noted that he is a native of Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district and that his daughter lives in the state.
Hawara was acquitted in 35 of the 36 cases registered against him following the assassination, the please stated, pointing to another convict from the same case involved in the jailbreak had already been transferred to Chandigarh.