Akal Takht sets up panel to take up Balwant Singh Rajoana's case with Centre

Amritsar, December 6

Akal Takht has directed the SGPC to review its decision on the mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana if the Centre does not commute his death sentence by December 31.

Earlier, the SGPC had rejected Rajoana’s demand to withdraw the petition filed on his behalf.

Rajoana, the death row convict in former CM Beant Singh’s assassination case, started hunger strike in Patiala jail on Tuesday, demanding withdrawal of the mercy petition submitted to the President on his behalf by the SGPC. The plea has been pending since 2012.

An emergency meeting of the five high priests, headed by Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, was held today to discuss the pendency of Rajoana’s petition.

Directing Rajoana to end his hunger strike, Akal Takht has constituted a panel, headed by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, to take up Rajoana’s case with the Centre.

In 2019, the Centre had issued a notification on the occasion of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, to convert Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment, but it could not be implemented.