Bhullar should be pardoned: SAD leaders to Prez
After meeting Mukherjee, Badal told reporters here that the SAD
delegation requested the President to pardon Bhullar for the sake of
"hard-earned communal harmony and peace in Punjab and the rest of
India".
SAD maintains that this is not a "rarest of the rare" case and,
therefore, the Supreme Court's verdict upholding the death sentence
awarded by the designated TADA court to Bhullar be "reviewed" and that
he be "acquitted in the interest of justice".
"There are other technical points as well. There is a law that when
somebody is very, very sick, he should not be hanged. For the last
two-and-a-half years, he has been very sick," Badal said.
The petition submitted by SAD said that Bhullar is not in a fit state
of mind. The ministry of external affairs, it said, had suggested
commutation of his death sentence. Bhullar has been in custody for the
last 17 years.
"Our main stress is on communal harmony," Badal said.
The SAD leaders have also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home
minister Sushilkumar Shinde in connection with Bhullar's case.
The President had rejected the mercy petition of Bhullar, who was
convicted by the TADA court in 2001 for his role in 1993 Delhi blast
that killed nine people at the Youth Congress office here. The target
was MS Bitta, who was then the Youth Congress President.
The SAD delegation that met the President included Deputy Punjab
chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Harsimrat Kaur, Naresh Gujral and
Rattan Singh Ajnala.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times