New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred by two weeks the hearing on a plea filed by Jagtar Singh Hawara, a convict in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking his transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to a prison in Punjab.
A Bench comprising Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh adjourned the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was unavailable to appear in the case. Hawara, a convicted Babbar Khalsa terrorist, is serving a life sentence in connection with the assassination.
Hawara has sought his transfer to a Punjab jail citing good conduct during incarceration, the socio-political unrest prevailing at the time of the crime, and personal grounds including his daughter’s residence in Punjab. He has also argued that all co-accused involved in a jail break case are lodged in Punjab prisons and that the Director General (Prisons) had recommended his transfer as far back as October 7, 2016.
In his plea, the 55-year-old prisoner claimed that no criminal case is pending against him in Delhi and that his incarceration in the national capital has prevented him from attending proceedings in a case pending in Punjab. He further submitted that he has been acquitted in 36 cases allegedly foisted on him after the assassination, except for one, and that court proceedings have continued in his absence, causing prejudice to his defense.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others were killed in a powerful explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Hawara was arrested on September 21 the same year. In 2007, a special CBI court awarded the death penalty to Hawara and Balwant Singh Rajoana, while other co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court in October 2010 commuted Hawara’s death sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life. The prosecution’s appeal against that order remains pending before the Supreme Court. Rajoana’s mercy petition has been pending for over 12 years.
The apex court had earlier, on September 27, 2024, issued notices to the Centre and the governments of Delhi and Punjab on Hawara’s petition seeking transfer. Hawara had earlier escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in January 2004 but was re-arrested after a year and sent back to prison.
