Chandigarh, March 20
After the Patiala Central Jail authorities returned the execution warrants to hang Beant Singh assassin Balwant Singh, a Chandigarh court today resent his warrants to the jail, stating that Balwant be hanged on March 31 itself as the order to execute his hanging has been upheld by the High Court.

The Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal today resent the execution warrants to Patiala jail to hang Balwant Singh on March 31 at 9 am. The same orders were earlier sent on March 10.

Jail authorities had returned the death warrant of the Chandigarh court pleading its inability to hang him, since the case, in which the Sikh hardliner has been awarded death sentence, belongs to Chandigarh.

While sending the warrants back, jail authorities through a letter pleaded that since the bomb blast that killed Beant Singh on August 31, 1995, in which Balwant was the back-up bomber, had occurred at the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh and the trial of that case was also carried out in Chandigarh, there was no point in hanging him in Patiala jail.