By IANS
Chandigarh : In a major embarrassment to the Punjab governor, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Wednesday set aside a pardon he granted to three murder convicts last year.
Governor S.F. Rodrigues, former army chief, pardoned three – Narayan Dutt, Prem Kumar and Manjit Singh – from Barnala town who were convicted of murder.
All three were arrested in March 2001. A local court held them guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment in March 2005.
Though the three appealed against their conviction, the governor pardoned them last year.
The high court Wednesday set aside the pardon, saying that it was done even while their appeal was pending before the court. The high court allowed the convicts to be released on bail by suspending their sentence pending the final decision on their appeal.
The high court took up the case following a complaint by a relative of the man the three were held guilty of killing.
The high court has now asked the Punjab government counsel to furnish reasons under which the three were granted the pardon.