Chandigarh, October 12
Jagtar Singh Hawara has escaped the gallows, but it is death for Balwant Singh in the Beant Singh assassination case.

A Babbar Khalsa International activist, Hawara has been branded as an “organiser of a heinous crime”, but the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court in Punjab’s then Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination case has been commuted to life sentence. He will remain behind bars till his last.

Other convicts, Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh, will continue to serve life terms.

Hearing the case on near continuous basis since February, the Bench of Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Arvind Kumar clarified that Hawara “shall not be released from the prison for the rest of his life”. Hawara was merely a tool in the hands of the prime conspirators and was not even present in the city when the blast took place, are some of the factors that weighed on the court’s mind while commuting the death penalty.

On the other hand, Balwant Singh’s refusal to defend himself and his confessional statements led him to the scaffold. “Without having any evidence in favour of Balwant Singh to go into, so that we can have a second thought on the murder reference of Balwant Singh, coupled with his three confessional statements, there is no other alternative with us but to confirm the findings of the trial court qua Balwant Singh,” the Bench ruled.

The defence was represented by Baldev Singh, while SK Saxena and RK Handa appeared for the CBI.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Gill asserted: “Hawara, though part of the bigger conspiracy to eliminate the former Chief Minister, kept himself outside the main action. As rightly argued by the counsel for the CBI, he was a tool in the hands of Mehal Singh and Wadhawa Singh (proclaimed offenders), who were guiding him from Pakistan. Hawara, it comes out, was an active member of the conspiracy like Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, who have been awarded life sentence.”

Justice Gill observed: “There is no evidence on record of the whereabouts of Hawara on August 31, 1995, (the assassination day) and as to where he was after 2.30 pm on August 30, 1995, or where did he go. The only inference we can make is that his not being present on August 30, 1995, or August 31, 1995, anywhere near the secretariat or near Chandigarh is that he did not want to be part of execution of the assassination of the former Chief Minister.”

In the judgment running into 180 pages, Justice Gill added: “It is the case of the prosecution that the conspiracy to assassinate the former CM was hatched in Pakistan between Mehal Singh, Wadhawa Singh and Hawara.

“Apart from the prosecution saying so, there is no evidence on record to substantiate this. Nothing is on record as to when did Hawara go to Pakistan and when did he come back.

“The case of Hawara does not fall within the parameters of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Machhi Singh versus State of Punjab. But we are conscious of the fact that a gruesome murder of the former Chief Minister, along with 16 others, had taken place and Hawara was the organiser of the heinous crime…. The case of Hawara is a borderline case for death sentence to be awarded.”