Commute death sentence given to Rajoana: Sukhbir

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday urged the Centre to recommend to the President the commutation of the sentence of death-row convict Balwant Singh Rajoana.

Lodged in a Patiala jail, Rajoana was convicted in the 1995 assignation case of Beant Singh, then Chief Minister.

The demand came days after the Supreme Court questioned the delay in the execution of Rajoana.

At a party meeting in Amritsar, Sukhbir said Rajoana had already spent 29 years in jail and asserted that the entire Sikh community worldwide was one on this issue.

He said Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami had also conveyed this sentiment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Elaborating on the issue, he said Rajoana was handed out death sentence 18 years ago.

“He has been living on death row for 18 years. The Supreme Court has also pointed out this anomaly. Accordingly, his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment in keeping with the central government notification recommending the same, which was issued on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak (in 2019),” he claimed.

He also slammed state’s ruling AAP over the Roshan Punjab project, terming it a “gimmick”.

“Punjabis know that the state was made power surplus by the erstwhile SAD government. Not a single megawatt has been added to Punjab’s electricity pool since the past nine years,” he claimed.

“It is condemnable that instead of generating additional power supply the AAP govt was resorting to cheap publicity stunts like inaugurating transformers. Instead of indulging in such gimmicks, it should thank the erstwhile SAD government for creating a 30 per cent surplus generation capacity which took care of the power needs of the state till now,” he added.