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| Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana |
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INDIA: PUNJAB JAILS DEPARTMENT REFUSES TO EXECUTE DEATH WARRANT
March 19, 2012: the Punjab Jails Department refused to execute the order of a Chandigarh court asking the Patiala Central Jail authorities to hang former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassin, Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana.
Patiala Central Jail authorities sent back the death warrant of the Chandigarh court pleading their inability to execute the hanging order since the death sentence was awarded to Rajoana by a court whose jurisdiction falls outside the State of Punjab. It is notable that Chandigarh is a territory that is under the control of Central Government of India.
A highly placed official from jail department said the decision to revert back the death warrant has been taken after due consultation of legal experts and discussion of the issue at various levels of the state government including the chief minister's office, reported Hindustan Times.
Attaching a letter with the death warrant sent back, the Patiala jail authorities have said that since the bomb blast that killed Beant Singh on 31 August 1995, in which Rajoana was the back-up bomber, had occurred in Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh and the trial of that case was also carried out in Chandigarh there was no point of hanging him in Patiala jail.
Rajoana, who had confessed his role in assassination of Beant Singh, was scheduled to be hanged on 31 March. This would be the first execution of a convict in the State in 24 years. Interestingly, Punjab has no hangman currently.
The order for carrying out the death sentence was issued on 10 March by Chandigarh additional sessions judge Shalini Nagpal on the request of Rajoana, who did not challenge his conviction.
"Rajoana was in Patiala Central Jail since November 2010, because another case against is pending in a Patiala court in which 12 kg of RDX was recovered from him in Patiala," informed Patiala Jail authorities told Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity. (Sources: hindustantimes.com, 13/03/2012 and 19/03/2012)
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