- DSGMC, SGPC and other Sikh bodies are called upon to chalk out joint strategy on 30 May meeting at Ludhiana
Amritsar (May 28, 2011): The decision of Union’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on whose recommendations the President of India rejected the mercy petition of Prof. Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar of Punjab, has sparked a wave of criticism across the State. A joint meeting of Sikh political, religious and social bodies and human rights organizations is called on 30 May, 11 am onwards, at Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Ludhiana by Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) led by Bhai Daljeet Singh Bittu, who is currently lodged in central jail, Amritsar.
Daljeet Singh Bittu has termed the decision as an outcome of alleged anti-Sikh mind-set of the Union Government, which has opened another chapter of biased against the Sikhs, informed Rajwinder Singh Raju, a local party leader who met Daljeet Singh Bittu in the jail, here today. He alleged that previously it was the judiciary that parted the way of set norm to convict Bhullar on no reliable evidence but now, unfortunately, the political set-up of the country has also applied similar discriminatory norms.
“Bhai Daljeet Singh has urged the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee, all factions of Akali Dal, Damdami Taksal, Sant Samaj, Dal Khasla, Khalsa Action Committee, Sikh Students Federation and other panthic bodies, religious and social groups and personalities and Human Rights’ bodies to attend the meeting so that joint strategy could be chalked out in this matter” informed Rajwinder.
Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, another leader of Panch Pardhani has alleged that the MHA has ignored the “mercy grounds” while deciding the mercy petition of Prof. Bhullar.
“DPS Bhullar satisfy at least four out of seven mercy grounds, therefore he deserved a clemency which is denied in his case” he claimed while adding that satisfaction of one mercy ground is considered sufficient to grant clemency in such cases.
Elaborating his claim about applicability of mercy grounds, Advocate Manjhpur said that Bhullar’s case was a split decision and judge heading the Supreme Courts’ bench had termed the sole bases of conviction as “bundle of lies” and “tailor made confession” and had rejected it. Same judge of apex court had also acquitted Prof. Bhullar in his separate decision.
Bhullar is the sole person convicted for conspiracy which, as per law, requires at least two persons to enter into, while all other accused persons have been acquitted.
Moreover, Bhullar was never convicted in any other case and he had already spent one and half decade in jail which is equal to normal length of life imprisonment. He was a teacher at an engineering college and his father, uncle and friend were killed by police during enforced disappearance. These are such personal and social conditions and circumstances that demand clemency for him.