Union Ministry of Home Affairs has commuted the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana to life imprisonment, who was sentenced to death in 2007 for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
The Ministry of Home Affairs conveyed the order to Punjab and Chandigarh administrations. The remission order will be pursued by the Chandigarh administration.
Earlier, the Central government had approved the commutation of Rajoana’s death sentence to a life term as a humanitarian gesture on the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev. The decision was criticised by Beant Singh’s grandson Ravneet Singh Bittu who called the decision shocking.
Beant Singh, often credited with ending terrorism in Punjab, was assassinated on August 31, 1995. A human bomb triggered the explosives as the chief minister was getting into his official vehicle at about 5:30 pm at the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.
Dilawar Singh, a Punjab Police officer, had acted as a human bomb to assassinate Beant Singh. Subsequent investigations revealed that Rajoana, the Babbar Khalsa terrorist, was to be the second human bomb in case the first human bomb failed.
