April 12, 2013 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau
Chandigarh/ Punjab (April 12, 2013): The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a the probable last review petition against death sentence awarded to Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar.
The petition seeking conversion of death punishment into life imprisonment was moved by wife of Professor DPS Bhullar on the ground of inordinate delay in execution besides other grounds such as deteriorated mental health condition and persistent mental torture by keeping Professor DPS Bhullar on death row for more than a decade.
The decision of Supreme Court has reaffirmed that there is no justice for Sikhs in India as the case of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar was dealt in an extraordinary manner by the Indian state – Indian political system as well as Indian judiciary.
Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar is a victim of state sponsored terrorism whose family members were subjected to enforced disappearances and custodial torture, and were secretly killed and disposed off, while the culprit police officers are enjoying full impunity and high ranks in Punjab police. The case of Prof. Bhullar symbolizes the plight of Sikhs in India.
Professor Bhullar was sentenced to death by a TADA court in 2001 solely on the bases of a fractured confessional statement. The alleged confession was extracted by the Delhi police under torture. Prof. Bhullar had told the court that his thumb impressions were forcible applied to blank papers by the police while he was in police custody.
It is pertinent to note here that this is the only case in India where a person is going to be hanged despite disagreement between the judges of the Supreme court as regards his guilt. A three-judges bench of Supreme Court of India had heard the appeal of Prof. Bhullar against the decision of trial court. Justice M. B. Shah, who was presiding the 3-judges-bench of the Supreme Court of India found that the whole case was fabricated against Prof. Bhullar by the police. He rejected the alleged confessional statement terming it as a ‘tailor made confession’ and rejected it. In his minority judgment Justice M. B. Shah had acquitted Prof. DPS Bhullar, while two other judges, who were of the view that this case was extraordinary in nature therefore there was not need for applying proper standards of the law of evidence, had confirmed the death sentence awarded to Prof. Bhullar in 2002.
A constitutional review petition was moved before President of Indian in 2003 that was rejected in 2011 in wake a plea moved by Prof. Bhullar’s wife in Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court of India had reserved it’s decision on this plea on April 19, 2012 that was announced today on April 12, 2013.
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Related Topics: Death Penalty, Indian State, Prof. Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, SCI, Sikhs in India