By IANS,
Chandigarh : A court here Saturday declared the main conspirator in the infamous Burail jail-break case an absconder.
Chief judicial magistrate J.S. Sidhu declared Narayan Singh Chaura, who had helped Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorists Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora in digging a tunnel to run away on the night intervening Jan 21-22, 2004, an absconder.
Hawara and Bheora were the masterminds of the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh at the high-security state secretariat complex here Aug 31, 1995. Hawara was rearrested by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell June 8, 2005.
Six accused in the case, including Hawara, were convicted by the trial court July 27, 2007. On July 21, 2007, the court sentenced him and another accused, Balwant Singh to death while sentencing others to various terms of imprisonment.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court Oct 12, 2010 commuted Hawara’s death sentence to life imprisonment while upholding capital punishment to Balwant Singh.
Hawara and Bheora were produced in the court, amid tight security, here Saturday.
The next date of hearing is slated May 6.
Beant Singh, chief minister from 1992 to 1995, was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab by dealing with the scourge with an iron hand along with supercop K.P.S. Gill.