CHANDIGARH – After the Tamil Nadu state Assembly’s resolution seeking clemency for the three killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Punjab House is preparing to tread the same course albeit in a different case.
A resolution seeking to commute the death penalty for Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment is likely to be presented in the Punjab Assembly, sources said. Reasons of public sentiments, and perhaps even more, something on similar lines to the Tamil Nadu resolution, could form a part of the resolution in Punjab seeking clemency for Bhullar.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said he is strongly for clemency for Bhullar and they were planning to bring a resolution in the Assembly in this regard. Badal said he will consult all political parties in the state before introducing the resolution.
With Assembly elections in Punjab less than four months away, the move is being seen as an attempt by the ruling Akali Dal among others to meet political ends.
Bhullar, a Khalistan activist in the eighties, was convicted in 2001 for attempting to murder the then Indian Youth Congress president Maninder Singh Bitta through a bomb blast in New Delhi in 1993. His conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court. His mercy petition was rejected by the President this year.
