Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal along with Shiromani Akali Dal MPs and Ministers met President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday and urged him to pardon death row convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar for the sake of maintaining peace and communal harmony in the State.
Asserting that it is a “rarest of the rare” case, they demanded that the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the death sentence awarded by the Designated TADA Court to Bhullar for Delhi bomb blast that killed nine persons be “reviewed” and that he be “acquitted in the interest of justice”. They also pleaded clemency for Bhullar on the ground that he is very sick and not in a fit state of mind to be hanged.
“Our main stress is on communal harmony,” said Badal who had submitted a memorandum in this regard to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde also.
Meanwhile, Shinde said that the Centre is considering Punjab Chief Minister’s demand. The Government will look into all aspects, including his mental sickness, before taking any decision on the issue, he said. “The Chief Minister of Punjab and the Deputy Chief Minister met me and handed over a memorandum. They have given the same memorandum to the Prime Minister and the President. Their representation is under consideration,” he told reporters.
He conceded that family members of all death row convicts should be informed well in advance about the possible hanging and be allowed to meet them for a last time before the execution. But secrecy must be maintained, he added. Shinde said that the backlog of mercy petitions have been cleared and now only petition is pending with his Ministry and two with the President.
Meanwhile, the politics on Bhullar case has begun with Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa accusing Badal of shedding “crocodile tears” over rejection of mercy petition to achieve narrow political gains. He said that SAD and BJP, the ruling partners in Punjab stand exposed on the issue of granting clemency to Bhullar by taking contrary stands.
On the other hand, similar demands have started coming in other cases also. DMK president M Karunanidhi has urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to adopt a Cabinet resolution seeking clemency for the three death row convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan. in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.