Devinder Singh Bhullar will hang: SC rejects mercy plea

The Supreme Court today rejected a plea by terror strike accused Devinderpal Singh Bhullar who sought to have his death sentence commuted to life on the grounds that there had been an inordinate delay in carrying out the sentence.

The Supreme Court bench only announced that the petition from Bhullar had been dismissed without giving the reasons for why it had been dismissed.

The bench had reserved its order on 19 April last year on the issue on a plea of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar’s family which had filed a petition on his behalf pleading that his capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as there has been “inordinate” delay in deciding his mercy plea and he is not mentally sound.

It was submitted that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting his/her execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in Delhi in September, 1993, here killing nine people. The target of the blast was allegedly India Youth Congress President Maninderjit Singh Bitta who managed to escape.

The Supreme Court had on 26 March, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by trial court and endorsed by the Delhi High Court.

He had filed a review petition which was also dismissed on 17 December, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative petition which too had been rejected by the apex court on March 12, 2003.

Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on 14 January, 2003. The President, after a lapse of over eight years, dismissed his mercy plea on 25 May in 2011.

Political leaders from across parties have supported the plea for clemency for Bhullar who has also claimed he is suffering from mental ailments as a result of his long imprisonment.