Patiala, Punjab (February 07, 2013): As per media reports Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana, a Sikh political prisoner who has been sentenced to death by a Chandigarh court in former Punjab CM Beant Singh assassination case, said on February 04, 2013 that the India’s legal system has double standards – while Delhi gang rape accused were nabbed within days, those involved in rapes committed during the Sikh Genocide 1984 are still roaming free.
Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana court appearance at Rajpura on January 21, 2013
As per inforamtion Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana was produced in a court at Patiala in connection with an 18-year-old old case of recovery of explosives.
As per reports Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana, whose hanging was stayed last year by the Indian government, read out from a handwritten four-page note in the court.
“All accused in Delhi gang rape case were arrested within days of the crime. But the same legal system has failed to deliver justice to Sikh women, who were raped and brutally murdered in Delhi in 1984,” said Rajoana.
“Though I also demand strict punishment for the Delhi gang rape accused, but why this double standard when dealing with the same crime against women of the same country?”, he reportedly added.
Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana in police custody
Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana reportedly added that the country’s law was meant to be followed by only minorities and the poor while influential people commit crimes and escape easily.
This was Rajoana’s second hearing in two weeks after a gap of around nine months during which he was not brought to the court due to security reasons.
The court, in December, had passed orders to hear Rajoana’s case through video conferencing but he had rejected it and demanded that he should be presented before the court in person.
It is notable that Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana was convicted and sentenced to 10 years rigorous in this case on February 06, 2013.
As Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana has already spent approximately 17 years in prison, sentence of 10 years awarded by Patiala court shall be set-off against the time already spent by him in Jail.