After Bhullar, another convict brought to Amritsar Jail

 Another Sikh prisoner Gurdeep Singh Khera, convicted in two separate cases under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), in 1996 and 2001, was brought to Punjab from Karnataka in the wee hours of Friday within two weeks of transferring Khalistani militant Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to Amritsar Central Jail. 

After bringing him to Amritsar by train around 2 am after covering a distance of nearly 2,000 km from Karnataka’s Gulbarga Jail, Khera was transferred to Amritsar Jail amidst tight security. Earlier, all legal and official formalities were completed to transfer him here. 55-year-old Khera, a native of Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar, was booked under TADA and later sentenced to life imprisonment in two different cases registered in 1996 in Delhi and Karnataka under Sections 3 and 6 of the TADA by a court in Bider on December 15, 1991. 

He was arrested on December 6, 1990, and has, so far, spent more than 25 years in jail.Khera had petitioned the Karnataka Government in December 2013, seeking transfer to Punjab. On December 12, 2014, the Punjab prison department had given no-objection certificate to Karnataka prison authorities for transferring Khera from Gulbarga prison. For the last nearly a month, Punjab jail and home department functionaries had been pursuing Karnataka Government officers to fast-track Khera’s transfer, said officials. The Punjab Government had facilitated the transfer of Bhullar and Khera to Amritsar jail on humanitarian grounds so that both could stay close to their families.