Dyalpura Bhaika/Bathinda (May 27, 2011): As per a “The Tribune” report “gloom descended on this Bathinda village as President Pratibha Patil rejected the mercy petition of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row”.
Bhullar, who belongs to Kothe Surjeet Pura, was awarded the death sentence by a Delhi trial court in 2001. Subsequently, the sentence was upheld confirmed by the Supreme Court in a majority decision.
Bhullar has been held guilty of triggering a blast near the office of the Indian Youth Congress in Delhi in 1993, killing nine persons and injuring the then IYC president Maninderjit Singh Bitta.
No farmer in this village went to the fields today. Sukhdev Singh Dhaliwal, village sarpanch, said the residents and panchayats of Dyalpura Bhaika and surrounding villages would move a representation to President Patil, urging her to review her decision and convert Bhullar’s death sentence to life imprisonment.
“Bhullar has already suffered a lot as he has been in jail for the past 10 years. He has been suffering from depression”.
It is notable that Prof. Bhullar was convicted solely on the basis of alleged confession made during police custody. Justice M. B. Shah, who was heading three judges bench of the apex court, had accquitted Prof. Bhullar. Justice Shah had rejected the confessional statement labelling it as bundle of lies and tailor made confession. But, other two judges while placing their full reliance on that statement, awarded death punishment to Prof. Bhullar.
“His father Balwant Singh and another relative kin were allegedly killed by the police. Their bodies were not given to the family. Bhullar deserves some mercy. His death sentence must be converted into life sentence,” he maintained. Chattar Singh Gudu, a former sarpanch, said the residents of Dyalpura Bhaika would build a movement for saving Bhullar’s life. Bhullar, he held, was a “victim of police atrocities and false court trials.” Mukhtiar Singh said an akhand path would be held for saving his cousin’s life.