Will work to ensure Bhullar is hanged, says blast target MS Bitta

Former president of the Indian Youth Congress Maninderjit Singh Bitta, who was the target of the 1993 blast that Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar is accused of carrying out, today welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict refusing to commute his sentence from the death penalty and said he would work to ensure it was carried out.

“I welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court….My fight against terrorism will continue and I will work to ensure Bhullar and killers of Rajiv Gandhi are hanged,” he said.

However, Bitta, who was the target of the blast that was carried out by the Khalistan Liberation Force, said that political elements, including those within the Congress had deserted him and instead had chosen to form alliances with those who were behind the attack on him.

Condemning the political support for clemency for Bhullar, Bitta said,“I don’t think the government will carry out the death sentence.”

Bitta claimed that despite his association with the Congress, some of them had worked against him and asked him to back down in the case.

“Ambika Soni had called me and told me to back down in the Bhullar case,” he said, and also questioned why Kapil Sibal had represented Bhullar in the case in the past.

Bhullar, who was sentenced to death in 2001, appealed against the death penalty on the grounds that there had been an inordinate delay in carrying out the sentence and it should result in the sentence being commuted.

The Supreme Court today struck down the appeal without giving any reason why.