SGPC calls ‘Panthic’ parties meet on December 2 to discuss Balwant Singh Rajoana’s hunger strike call

Amritsar, November 30

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) today decided to discuss the issue of Balwant Singh Rajoana with the Panthic parties on December 2.

SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami said the executive appealed to Rajoana to withdraw his call for going on a hunger strike.

Rajoana, during his meeting with the SGPC delegation in Patiala jail, asked the Sikh body to withdraw the mercy petition by December 5, else he would go on hunger strike.

He has been in the jail for the past 28 years after being convicted in the 1995 assasination case of then Chief Minister Beant Singh. In 2012, a mercy petition on his behalf was filed to the President by the SGPC for commutation of Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment.

In 2019, the Centre had issued a notification in this direction, but it has not been implemented to date. “Even the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to take a decision on Rajoana’s petition, but in vain,” he said.

“Besides the Panthic representatives, the 11-member committee formed on the issue of Sikh prisoners on the directions of Akal Takht will also be invited,” he said.