24 years on, former CM Beant Singh’s killer Jagtar Singh Tara visits native village

Amit Sharma

Chandigarh, April 30

Jagtar Singh Tara, who is serving a life sentence at Model Jail, Burail, for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, was yesterday granted a few hours of custody parole to attend the bhog ceremony of his brother at his native village in Ropar district. That was Tara’s first visit to his village in 24 years.

It has been for the first time since his re-arrest in 2015 that the prisoner was granted a custody parole. His brother, Jaswinder Singh (53), passed away recently.

The IG (Prisons), Deepak Purohit, allowed Tara’s custody parole after which the latter was taken to his village in tight police security and brought back to the jail the same day. Jail officials said Tara was taken to the village around 9.30 am and brought back by 3 pm.

A team, led by a DSP, was provided assistance by the Punjab police. “There were several police vehicles with the security team to ensure that no untoward incident took place,” said a jail official. Tara claimed he last visited his village in 1999.

Tara has been lodged in a high-security cell under 24-hour CCTV surveillance. He is not allowed to move out of the compound where the cell is located. On August 31, 1995, Beant Singh was killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat here. Sixteen others also lost their lives when Punjab police employee Dilawar Singh blew himself up.

Tara was arrested in September 1995 in Delhi for his involvement in the assassination. He, along with two other assassins and a murder accused, Devi Singh, who cooked food for them and shared the same barracks, had escaped from the jail in 2004 after digging a 104-foot-long tunnel. While two of them were arrested a few years later, Tara was arrested in Thailand in 2015. The fourth escapee, Devi Singh, is at large.

2004 jail escape

• Tara was arrested in September 1995 in Delhi for his involvement in Beant Singh’s assassination.
• He, along with two other assassins and a murder accused, Devi Singh, had escaped from the jail in 2004 after digging a 104-foot-long tunnel.
• While two of them were arrested a few years later, Tara was arrested in Thailand in 2015.
• The fourth escapee, Devi Singh, is at large.