On death row for assassinating Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, Balwant Singh Rajoana on Thursday announced to go on an indefinite hunger strike at the Patiala Central Jail to protest the alleged failure of the Centre to take a final decision on his mercy plea.
At the same time, Rajoana also accused the Sikhs’ mini parliament — Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the Union Home Ministry of “betraying” him on the issue.
In a missive addressed to “Khalsa Panth” and released by his sister Kamadeep Kaur, Rajoana said that his hunger strike will continue till a final decision is taken on his punishment.
Patiala Jail Superintendent Bhupinder Singh Virk confirmed the development saying that a medical officer went to him for a routine check-up but Rajoana refused.
Meals were served to him this morning at his cell in Batti Chakkian of the jail but he refused to take them, he said.
Rajaona alleged that despite 21 years of jail sentence, his case was still pending with the President of India’s office.
“The SGPC and the Centre has been biased in my brother’s case and this has forced him to sit on a hunger strike. He never hired any advocate during the court case but his file regarding punishment is still pending at the President’s office. So, on Thursday he has started a hunger strike and has not eaten anything since morning,” said Rajoana’s sister Kamaldeep Kaur.
She added, “He informed the jail authorities regarding the hunger strike a few days ago”.
Rajoana, in his letter that has been posted on his sister’s Facebook wall, said, “I have been in jail for the last 21 years and have been awaiting the verdict of the rulers. Due to the negative role of SGPC, the central government is delaying a decision regarding my case so I am going to start indefinite hunger strike.”
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court awarded the death sentence to Rajoana in July 2007 along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in Beant Singh assassination case. Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012.
Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 2012 had maintained that it would go to any extent to save Rajoana and asked the State Government and the SGPC “to take all possible legal and other steps” to secure clemency for him, even though he always denied any mercy.
In 2012, the SGPC had filed a clemency petition for him with the then President Pratibha Patil which is pending till date.
The former Chief Minister Beant Singh (1992-95), who was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab, was assassinated by Dilawar Singh, a human bomb, at the high security Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first assassin failed. Rajoana, during the trial, had admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had, in October 2010, upheld the death sentence for Rajoana, but changed the capital punishment given to Hawara to life imprisonment. Rajoana had refused to challenge the death sentence awarded to him.