Akal Takht jathedar raises release of Devinderpal Singh Bhullar with Delhi CM

Amritsar, Dec 8 (PTI) Acting Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj on Monday raised the issue of releasing Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, a 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict, with Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

Gupta and her Cabinet colleagues on Monday visited the Golden Temple to pay obeisance. During the visit, the Delhi chief minister met Gargajj at the secretariat of the Akal Takht Sahib.

Gargajj told Gupta that the case of 'Bandi Singh' Bhullar has been pending with her government and that his release could be ensured with just one signature of hers.

Bandi Singhs refer to Sikh prisoners who, the community claims, are still lodged in different jails despite completion of their sentences.

Gargajj said that former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal kept Bhullar's case pending, and the present BJP government has a good opportunity to release him from prison.

Whenever the nation's security is at stake, it is the youth of Punjab who stand at the forefront and make the greatest sacrifices, he claimed.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has been seeking the release of several 'Bandi Singhs', including Bhullar, who was convicted for the bomb blast in Delhi in September 1993 that claimed nine lives and injured 31 others.

Bhullar was awarded death penalty by a TADA court in August 2001, but his capital punishment was commuted to life sentence by the Supreme Court in 2014.

He was shifted to the Amritsar Central Jail from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on health grounds in June 2015. PTI JMS CHS ARI