By IANS,
Chandigarh : Congress leader Amarinder Singh Sunday questioned the move by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to bring a resolution in the assembly seeking clemency for Khalistani terrorist Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on the death row, calling it a “stunt”.
In a statement here Sunday, Amarinder Singh, the state Congress chief and a former chief minister, said Badal’s stand on seeking clemency for Bhullar was only a political stand in an election year in the state.
Rejecting the “politically motivated” move by Badal to bring the resolution to put pressure on the central government, Amarinder said that the Badal government, in 2008, in an affiodavit before the Supreme Court, had stated that Bhullar was a “hardened criminal and a dreaded terrorist”.
He pointed out that Bhullar, who has spent 17 years in jail, had sought his transfer from Tihar jail in Delhi to a jail in Punjab but the Badal government had opposed it saying that he (Bhullar) was a threat to peace in Punjab.
“Badal’s resolution is aimed more at serving his own vested political interests than getting mercy for Bhullar. He is simply trying to play politics on such an important issue by bringing in a resolution in the assembly,” Amarinder said.
He said that the resolution in the assembly will not serve any purpose and will not in any way help in getting any relief to Bhullar. He pointed out that the “Bhullar matter” was already before the Supreme Court again.
“It is disgusting on part of Badal to play politics on Bhullar issue which literally is a matter of life and death for someone,” Amarinder said.
Amarinder Singh maintained that his stand was clear and categoric that Bhullar must not be hanged as he has been in jail for 17 years, out of which he was on death penalty for eight years, while life term is for 14 years only.
“He cannot be punished twice – life-term and death sentence – for the same crime. Besides, the decision to hang him was a split verdict,” he said.
He said that Badal’s move for a resolution on Bhullar was only to mimic similar resolutions – passed and proposed – in Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir assemblies to seek clemency for death row prisoners from those states.
A Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) outfit terrorist, Bhullar was sentenced to death for masterminding a 1993 car bomb attack in front of the Youth Congress office in New Delhi that killed 12 people.