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Exert pressure on Indian government to relive Prof Bhullar from the death penalty: Sikh body to EU

May 27, 2013 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Memorandum to European Union Ambassador by Dal Khalsa:

Hon’ble Ambassador
European Union
New Delhi

We seek the active intervention of the European Union in exerting diplomatic pressure on Indian Government and raising humanitarian concerns to stop the execution of death sentence of Prof. Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row and whose sentence has been confirmed by the Supreme Court of India in April despite original conviction based on confession before police, no corroboration of evidence of any kind, split judgment of the Supreme Court in upholding the sentence of capital punishment, inordinate delay in carrying out the sentence as well as ignoring the mental status of the accused.

Let us reiterate that our organization ‘Dal Khalsa’ stands for abolition of capital punishment. The Sikh people have compassion and scope for improvement as the basic tenets of their religion which upholds the dignity of man and disallows man to play God.

As India pursues double standards in handling cases involving death penalty, the European Union has a special role to play. On the one hand India promises European country Portugal (in the case of Abu Salem) and Italy (in the recent case of two Italian marines) that Indian courts would not hand over death sentence even if the said accused in respective cases are found guilty of culpable homicide, whereas in the case of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar who has been deported from European country Germany, India is steadfastly ignoring the requests from German government’s leadership at the highest level to relive Bhullar from the death penalty on humanitarian grounds. It is pertinent to mention here that, in 1997, a Frankfurt court termed the deportation of Bhullar illegal under German law, which prohibited deportation of someone facing death penalty in the recipient country.

The European Union needs to intervene effectively so that India does not dither on its international commitment as it has shown alacrity of deceit and subterfuge in executing Kashmiri activist Afzal Guru recently. Everyone fears that India is likely to start a string of executions as a matter of political correctness or to exercise dominion over peoples and communities through the use of the hangman’s noose as a scare for raising political demands and concerns.

Every section of the Sikh people is united in joining the chorus of abolition of death penalty in India and in South Asia. We urge you to do everything in the book to make India understand the question of importance of human life, notwithstanding the errors of judgment of Indian judicial officers. Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar must be free, at all cost, under all circumstances, otherwise like the helplessness of the Sikhs, like the helplessness of the German government, like the helplessness of Amnesty International and other world human rights organisations, the European Union may become guilt-ridden for not being able to stop the execution of a person declared totally innocent by one of the three judges of the Supreme Court adjudicating in his case.

Yours sincerely

H S Dhami
President
Dal Khalsa

Dated: 25-05-13

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Related Topics: Dal Khalsa, Death Penalty, European Union, Prof. Devender Pal Singh Bhullar

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