Chandigarh: In a dramatic and equally reckoning move Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh here on Thursday directed the state’s legal aid team to extend help to the two Sikhs activists who were facing double jeopardy — prosecution or punishment of a person twice for the same offence — for hijacking a Srinagar-bound Indian Airlines plane and taking it to Lahore in 1981.
Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh [File Photo]
While interacting with the media chief minister stated that Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh, after completing their sentence in Pakistan, were now facing trial in India on sedition charges, which their counsel described as a “classic example of double jeopardy”.
The duo’s life would be spent facing one trial after the other for the “same set of facts”, he adds.
The supposed inclination of Amarinder Singh towards assisting the Sikh activists involved in a legal tussle that too amid ongoing crack down against pro-freedom elements in the state of Punjab is seen by many as a move towards striking a balance between the both Sikh and Hindu vote bank of the state.
Moreover, Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh while declining the dicey gesture made by Amarinder Singh has stated that his organisation has already engaged the lawyers to fight the respective case and that the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has taken upon the responsibility to pay their fees.
In concluding statement the chief minister stated that While the hijacking was condemnable, any attempt to prosecute the two who had already served life term in Pakistan for the crime would amount to a serious travesty of justice.