Punjab seeks 'premature' release of 13 life convicts

Punjab Government today sought "premature release" of 13 "life convicts", five of them jailed in former Chief Minister Beant Singh assassination case and one in bomb blast in New Delhi in September 1993, in which nine persons were killed and 25 others, including M S Bitta, were injured.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote separate letters to six states -- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat and Delhi-- and Chandigarh Union Territory taking up the "issue of premature release of 13 life convicts hailing from Punjab, presently lodged under TADA Act in the jails of various states across the country for the past several years."

Badal has sought "their (13 life convicts) prompt release on humanitarian grounds," according to a Punjab government release.
The 86-year-old five-time Chief Minister asked the states to consider the cases "sympathetically" as per the provisions of premature release policy of their states to secure the release of the convicts "expeditiously".
The Chief Minister has sought the release of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a convict in 1993 Delhi bomb blast case, who is lodged in Tihar Jail.
Badal sought personal intervention of Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung for the release of life convict Bhullar, "whose death sentence awarded by the Additional Session Judge Delhi Court has already been commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court and the he has already completed imprisonment of 20 years."

The SAD leader has also sought release of five convicts of Beant Singh assassination case of 1995. Two of them Paramjeet Singh Bheora and Jagtar Singh Hawara are lodged in Tihar Jail, New Delhi and had undergone incarceration of 19 years.
Three other convicts of the case-- Gurmeet Singh, Shamsher Singh and Lakhwinder Singh-- are lodged in Burail Jail at Chandigarh for whose release Badal has written to Administrator of Chandigarh Shivraj V Patil.