Bhullar in mental asylum, can't be hanged till he's fit, says Tihar official
Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, the Khalistani militant convicted in the
1993 Delhi bomb blast case, is currently in a mental asylum and cannot
be hanged till he is declared mentally fit, a Tihar Jail official said
on Friday.
Bhullar, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, is undergoing treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour in Dilshad Garden in Delhi, his lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi's office said.
"According to Indian law, a convict cannot be hanged
till he is declared mentally and physically fit," Sunil Gupta, a Tihar
Jail spokesman, said.
Bhullar was sent to a mental asylum around two-and-a-half years ago and has since been lodged there, he said.
"When we get Bhullar's fitness certificate from the asylum, he will be lodged back in Tihar Jail and hanged, as per the procedure," he said.
Delhi's Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra also said that Bhullar was not in Tihar jail.
Earlier in the day, dismissing a plea by Bhullar challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by the president, the apex court refused to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
The court said the petitioner had failed to make a case for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of the delay by the president in deciding his mercy plea.
Bhullar was given the death penalty for a blast at the Youth Congress office which left nine dead. The attack was targeted against then Youth Congress leader M.S. Bitta.
He filed a mercy petition on January 14, 2003, which was rejected by the president May 25, 2011.
- With IANS inputs
Bhullar, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, is undergoing treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour in Dilshad Garden in Delhi, his lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi's office said.
Bhullar was sent to a mental asylum around two-and-a-half years ago and has since been lodged there, he said.
"When we get Bhullar's fitness certificate from the asylum, he will be lodged back in Tihar Jail and hanged, as per the procedure," he said.
Delhi's Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra also said that Bhullar was not in Tihar jail.
Earlier in the day, dismissing a plea by Bhullar challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by the president, the apex court refused to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
The court said the petitioner had failed to make a case for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of the delay by the president in deciding his mercy plea.
Bhullar was given the death penalty for a blast at the Youth Congress office which left nine dead. The attack was targeted against then Youth Congress leader M.S. Bitta.
He filed a mercy petition on January 14, 2003, which was rejected by the president May 25, 2011.
- With IANS inputs
Courtesy: India Today
