NEW DELHI: The
Delhi government
’s
sentence review board
on Tuesday deferred the decision on
pre-mature release
of
1993
Delhi
bomb blast case convict
Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar
.
According to sources, the board, chaired by Delhi home minister Satyendra Jain, discussed 27 of the 28 cases lined up for Wednesday and only Bhullar’s case was deferred to the next meeting. While offering no explanation for the same, sources said the board would take up the plea in its next meeting.
Bhullar has been lodged in Amritsar Central Jail since June 2015 when he was released from Delhi's Tihar Jail on health grounds.
Members of the sentence review board include the prison’s director-general, state home secretary, state law secretary, a district judge, the government’s chief probationary officer, and a joint commissioner rank officer from Delhi Police.
Nine people were killed and 31 injured in the blast in 1993. Former Youth Congress chief M S Bitta was among those who survived the attack. A TADA court had sentenced Bhullar to death on August 25, 2001. However, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court later.
According to officials, premature release of prisoners serving life imprisonment can be considered after they spend at least 14 years in jail without remissions and have good jail conduct records.
Officials added that the completion of 14 years does not entitle a prisoner for release and it is solely on the discretion of the SRB to release such convicts.
Various Sikh groups had raised the demand for Bhullar's release ahead of the assembly elections in Punjab. Sources said the Centre, too in communication, had urged the Delhi government to take up the case at the earliest.
Former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal had also sought the release of Bhullar in the “larger interest of consolidating peace and communal harmony” in Punjab. He had accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi of obstructing his release.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had hit back, saying it was a sensitive issue and that the SAD was doing dirty politics over it.
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