Beant grandson doubts Shah's 'no pardon' statement, says misleading nation on Rajoana

The grandson of assassinated Punjab chief minister Beant Singh on Wednesday accused the Centre of misleading the nation, a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Parliament that convict Balwant Singh Rajoana has not been granted any pardon.

Beant Singh's grandson Gurkirat Kotli shared the copy of a purported Home Ministry letter sent to Punjab government in September, informing that Rajoana's death sentence was being commuted to life imprisonment.

Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was sentenced to death for his involvement in an explosion outside the Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh that killed the then chief minister and 16 others in 1995.

In September, officials indicated that the Centre has decided to commute the death sentence as a humanitarian gesture ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

We are not satisfied with Amit Shah's statement in the Lok Sabha on the issue. The Centre is misguiding the nation and it is trying to give a twist to the issue, Kotli told PTI.

Kotli's cousin and Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Asking the member not to go by media reports, the home minister had replied, "No pardon has been given."