Bhullar’s early release plea rejected; NSCN’s Ningshen recommended

The Delhi Government has rejected the plea for the premature release of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, while recommending the premature release of self-styled NSCN (M) ‘lieutenant’ Hopeson Ningshen, who was convicted in connection with the abduction and killing of three Manipur Government officials in the State’s Ukhrul district in February 2009. The decision was taken at a meeting of Delhi’s Sentence Review Board (SRB), held last December.

According to a letter issued to the Director General of Prisons, Tihar, on February 5, the SRB considered 51 cases for premature release in its meeting held on December 23, 2025. Of these, 24 cases were rejected. Bhullar’s name figured among those denied early release.

According to sources, the SRB recommended the premature release of Ningshen, subject to the concurrence of the Central Government. Besides, the SRB rejected the premature of Bhullar.

Bhullar was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people and injuring of 31 in the blast in 1993. Among those who survived the attack is former Youth Congress chief MS Bitta.

Bhullar was awarded the death penalty by a designated TADA court in August 2001, but his capital punishment was commuted to a life sentence in 2014. He was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on health grounds in June 2015.

In 2022, his premature release case was deferred by the SRB, despite his “poor health condition” and “vegetative state”, officials said. Later, his premature release was declined by the SRB in its meeting in 2024.

The Centre had, in September 2019, recommended special remission to eight Sikh prisoners, including Bhullar, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. However, his release was objected to by some members of the SRB based on the fact that his action as a terrorist claimed innocent lives, and that sending him out at a time when voices in favour of Khalistan were trying to resurrect abroad as well as in Punjab, would embolden them further, the sources said. The issue of Bhullar’s release had resurfaced in recent months after Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney urged the Delhi Government to convene the SRB and reconsider the case. Writing to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta ahead of Guru Nanak Dev’s Gurpurab on November 5, Sahney had said Bhullar had completed more than 30 years in jail and was entitled to a fair review in line with Supreme Court directions. Former Rajya Sabha MP and former National Commission for Minorities chairman Tarlochan Singh had also written to the Chief Minister, seeking an early SRB meeting. He had flagged Bhullar’s long hospitalisation and argued that the delay in taking a decision amounted to continued injustice.

After his death sentence was commuted in 2014, Bhullar was granted parole for the first time in April 2016 for 21 days and has since received multiple extensions. His name also appeared in the Union Government’s 2019 list of prisoners considered for special remission to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

An order issued by the Home department of the Delhi Government last week stated that Delhi’s Lt Governor has remitted the unexpired term of sentence of 26 life term convicts on the recommendation of the SRB. The released convicts included a Nigerian national, Kenneth Chidi Onyeaghala. He was convicted with life sentence in connection with murder and robbery in Delhi, in 2022.

The order said that Onyeaghala would be deported to his native country immediately after his release.