Punjab CM, Dy CM meet PM seeking Bhullar's clemency

, April 15:

Chief Minister

and his son Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal met Prime Minister

on Monday to discuss the fallout of the Supreme Court judgment turning down the plea of militant Devendarpal Singh Bhullar to commute his death sentence into life term.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-led government in Punjab is apprehensive that the law and order situation in the state could deteriorate if Bhullar is executed. The CM and the Depty CM gave a memorandum to the PM seeking Bhullar's clemency. They said they wanted the hard-earned communal harmony in the state could not be risked to be jeopardised through Bhullar's execution.

Bhullar has been sentenced to death for killing nine people with a car bomb in Delhi in 1993.

The apex court gave a landmark judgment last week which will affect not just Bhullar but 16 other prisoners on death row as well. The court had held that a delay in the decision on Bhullar's mercy petition does not mean that the death sentence awarded to him will be commuted to life imprisonment.

Bhullar's counsel H S Phoolka is expected to file a petition in the Supreme Court this week seeking mercy for the militant.

The SAD leadership had raised a similar concern about the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, involved in the assassination for former Punjab CM Beant Singh in 1995. Rajoana was due to be hanged on March 31, 2012, but the Centre had stayed it just two days before.

OneIndia News