Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday urged the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to intervene to ensure the immediate release of the 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Davinderpal Singh Bhullar.
Badal, in a letter to the AAP national convener, requested him "to apprise the Sentence Review Board (SRB) of the Delhi government about the special remission granted to Prof Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar by the union government to ensure his immediate release from prison".
The SAD president said it was a matter of concern that the Delhi SRB had "rejected the proposal for Prof Bhullar's release repeatedly".
"You yourself had during the recent Punjab assembly election stated that you had directed the SRB to meet and reconsider its earlier decision to block Prof Bhullar's release. The fact that the opposite occurred during the meeting of the SRB on March 3 has raised a question mark on the commitment made by you in this context," wrote Badal, according to a SAD statement here.
"There is a growing demand from the community as well as Punjabis in general that Prof Bhullar, who has been incarcerated for more than 26 years, be freed on humanitarian grounds keeping in view his worsening mental and physical health. This sentiment should be respected," he said.
Stating that the early release of the Sikh captive would strengthen peace and communal harmony in Punjab, Sardar Badal said that the excessive delay in this release has hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community as well as the Punjabis.
Listing out the facts of the case, Sardar Badal said that the Delhi government alone stands in the way of the release of the Sikh captive. He said that the Supreme Court, was commuted the death sentence of Bhullar to life imprisonment on the ground of inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition.
Bhullar was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people and injuring 31 in the blast. He was awarded the death penalty by a designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court in August 2001, but the Supreme Court commuted his capital punishment to life sentence in 2014.
( With inputs from ANI )
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