Chandigarh court grants bail to Beant Singh assassination convict Gurmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, June 2

Gurmeet Singh, convicted of the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh was granted bail by a Chandigarh court on Friday.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Aman Inder Singh Sandhu granted him bail on two sureties of Rs 2 lakh each.

Advocates Jaspal Singh Manjpur and Dilsher Singh Jandiala filed the bail application of the convict in view of the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed in January to release all those convicts on regular bail who had completed their life sentences but the decision with regard to their permanent release is pending before competent authorities.

Earlier, Lakhwinder Singh alias Lakha, another convict, was released from Chandigarh's Burail jail on bail in May.

Gurmeet has been behind bars for over 27 years.

Currently lodged in Chandigarh’s Burail jail, Gurmeet sought release on the grounds that he had already completed 27 years in jail. He contended that he should not be discriminated against as various other life imprisonment convicts had been released on completion of 14 years of sentence.