After Bhullar, another convict brought to Amritsar Jail

Amritsar, Jun 26: Within two weeks of transferring 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict Bhullar to Central Jail here, another convict in two separate cases under TADA in 1996 and 2001, Gurdeep Singh Khera, was brought to Punjab from Karnataka today.

"Khera has been transferred in the Central Jail Amritsar amidst the tight security during wee hours," police said today.

He was brought here by train during midnight after covering the a distance of nearly 2,000 km from Gulbarga Jail. Earlier, all legal and official formalities were completed to transfer him here. Khera, 55, is the second convict to be brought to Punjab after 1993 blasts convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who was shifted to Amritsar from Delhi's Tihar jail on June 12.

Khera, a native of Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar, was booked under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Prevention Act and later sentenced to life imprisonment in two different cases registered in 1996 in New Delhi and Karnataka.

It is said that earlier, Khera had petitioned the Karnataka government in December 2013, seeking transfer to Punjab. On December 12, 2014, the Punjab prison department had given no-objection certificate to Karnataka prison authorities for transferring Khera from Gulbarga prison.

For the last nearly a month, Punjab jail and home department functionaries had been pursuing Karnataka government officers to fast-track Khera's transfer, said officials. Khera was handed out a life term under sections 3 and 6 of the TADA by a court in Bider on December 15 in 1991.

As he was arrested on December 6, 1990, he has so far spent more than 23 years in jail. Punjab government had facilitated the transfer of Bhullar and Khera to Amritsar central jail on humanitarian grounds so that both could stay close to their families and get parole when required.

PTI