Balwant Singh Rajoana, a death row convict in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, was granted parole for 3 hours by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to attend the bhog ceremony of his brother, Kulwant Singh Rajoana, who recently passed away.
Rajoana, who has been in jail for over 28 years since his arrest in December 1995, was escorted from Patiala Central Jail to his native village, Rajoana Kalan, in Ludhiana district amid tight security.
The Ludhiana rural police and Patiala police ensured heavy security during his brief visit to the village and the Gurdwara Manji Sahib.
Rajoana has been seeking the commutation of his death sentence, citing the prolonged delay in the President’s decision on his mercy petition. The case is currently under review in the Supreme Court, with the next hearing set for November 25.
Rajoana’s conviction stems from his involvement in the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh, in which 12 others were also killed in Chandigarh. He was sentenced to death in 2007 by a CBI special court.
In 2012, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) filed a mercy petition on Rajoana’s behalf. However, in 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) proposed to commute his sentence in honor of Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th birth anniversary, though this was not implemented.
The case has sparked political controversy, with Union Minister Amit Shah stating in December 2019 that Rajoana had not been pardoned despite rumors.
Previously, Rajoana had been granted parole for one hour on January 31, 2022, to attend the bhog ceremony of his adoptive father, Jaswant Singh, in Ludhiana, where he also made a public appeal for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) support ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections.
Rajoana, once a police constable, has been linked to the Babbar Khalsa International and justified Beant Singh’s assassination, citing the former chief minister’s role in alleged extra-judicial killings of Sikh youths.
His appeal for commutation is still pending, and the next step in the legal process will unfold at the upcoming Supreme Court hearing.
