Ex- Punjab CM Beant Singh's assassin extradited from Thailand to India

Former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's assassin and Babbar Khalsa militant Jagtar Singh Tara, who was convicted for life for the crime, has been extradited from Thailand.

Tara, 37, was brought to New Delhi last night by a Punjab Police team after his custody was obtained from the Thai Police.He had escaped ten years ago from Chandigarh's Burail Jail by digging a tunnel.

Tara is expected to be produced before a court in Patiala, where police may press further charges against him as he was staying in Thailand on a Pakistani passport.

His subsequent interrogation could throw light on on Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence's attempts to revive Sikh militancy in India.

Tara was nabbed by Thai police on January 5 this year following an Interpol Red Corner Notice issued against him.

India had been pressing for his deportation but the Thai Police produced him in the court as he had been arrested on a Pakistani passport. After his extradition order by a Thai court on January 7, no other appeal of Tara was entertained as India established Tara's identity beyond doubt that he is the same person who had been convicted in absentia for Beant Singh's assassination case in 2007.

According to the CBI, Tara was directly involved in the assassination of Beant Singh as he had purchased the car which was used to kill the then CM at the Chandigarh secretariat in the mid-nineties.