On July 27, the court had held Jagtar Singh Hawara, Shamsher Singh, Balwant Singh, Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh guilty under Sections 302(murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120-B(criminal conspiracy) of the IPC while holding Naseeb Singh guilty under the Explosive Substances Act.

Picking holes in the CBI counsel’s arguments, defence lawyers A.S. Chahal and Arvind Thakur told reporters outside the jail that the killing of Beant Singh was not a “rarest of the rare” case and could not be regarded as a fit case for awarding capital punishment. They sought life imprisonment for the five accused and 10 years’ term for Naseeb Singh.

The defence counsel contended that there was no direct evidence and the capital punishment could not be awarded on the basis of only circumstantial evidence. However, the CBI counsel contended that the quantum of sentence could not be mitigated on the basis of the circumstantial evidence.

Dubbing Beant Singh’s rule “worse than that of the Mughals and the British”, Chahal argued that “keeping in view political, social, religious and other circumstances at that time, it has to be accepted that the killing of Beant Singh was not for any personal reasons”.

“Beant Singh represented no one in Punjab and was a tool in the hands of the central government,” the counsel submitted before the special court.

“Beant Singh came to power by securing votes to the extent of mere 6 per cent as the other major political parties boycotted the Punjab elections held in 1992... During the period of Beant Singh as Chief Minister and till his death there were countless false encounters wherein innocent Sikhs were killed,” Chahal alleged.

Detailing the “acts of oppression” carried out during the Beant Singh regime, the counsel said, “The answer to oppression came in the shape of late (human bomb) Dilawar Singh,” he added.

“So the killing of Beant Singh was not a pure and simple murder, but a divine killing that has been done by all incarnations worshipped in India... So as per the Indian Penal Code, the assassination constitutes the offence of murder but the system of governing of that time itself compelled the people to act in such a manner. The quantum of punishment must be decided by taking into account these compelling circumstances,” the defence counsel submitted, pleading leniency towards the convicts.

Meanwhile, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front M.S. Bitta and Gurkirat Singh, a grandson of Beant Singh, hoped that justice would be done in the case and all convicts would be given capital punishment.