Today, on 13th January,The Supreme Court deferred for two weeks the hearing on Jagtar Singh Hawara’s plea seeking transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to any prison in Punjab. Hawara, a Babbar Khalsa member, is serving imprisonment for the assassination.
NEW DELHI: Today, on 13th January, the Supreme Court postponed for two weeks the hearing on Jagtar Singh Hawara’s plea, a convict in the Beant Singh murder case, requesting his transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to any prison in Punjab.
Hawara, a member of the Babbar Khalsa terrorist group, is serving a life sentence for his role in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995.
The bench, consisting of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh, adjourned the matter due to the unavailability of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. On September 27 of the previous year, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the Centre, Chandigarh administration, and the governments of Delhi and Punjab regarding Hawara’s plea.
Factual Background of the case
Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh was assassinated in a devastating suicide bomb blast outside the Punjab & Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh. The attack was executed by Dilawar Singh Babbar, a constable in the Punjab Police and a militant associated with the Babbar Khalsa.
This tragic incident resulted in the deaths of over 17 individuals, with many others injured. The attack was perceived as an act of revenge against the government’s aggressive measures against militancy, particularly related to alleged police encounters involving Sikh youth during Beant Singh’s administration.
Following the attack, a police investigation traced the conspiracy back to Babbar Khalsa International, implicating key figures such as Jagtar Singh Hawara, Balwant Singh Rajoana, and several others involved in the planning.
In 1997, formal charges were brought against the accused. Balwant Singh Rajoana confessed to his involvement as a backup bomber, opting not to seek legal representation and expressing a lack of faith in the Indian judiciary. Jagtar Singh Hawara emerged as a principal conspirator in the case.
On January 21, 2004, a significant event occurred at Burail Jail in Chandigarh, where Hawara, along with Paramjit Singh Bheora and two other inmates, escaped through a tunnel. This incident represented a major embarrassment for both the Punjab Police and prison authorities, prompting an extensive manhunt for the escapees. Hawara was re-arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in 2005 and returned to incarceration.
On July 1, 2007, a Special CBI Court delivered its verdict: Balwant Singh Rajoana was sentenced to death, while Jagtar Singh Hawara also received a death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment following an appeal.
Present Petition
The plea submitted to the court stated that Hawara has maintained good conduct during his imprisonment, except for an alleged escape attempt on January 22, 2004, after which he was re-arrested. It argued that he should be transferred to a Punjab prison since there are no pending cases against him in Delhi.
The petition asserted,
“Petitioner (Hawara) is currently serving his life imprisonment till the rest of his life in a case registered in the state of Punjab… He is a native of state of Punjab, Fatehgarh Sahib district, and ought to be confined in a prison in Punjab,”
According to the plea, Hawara has been wrongfully implicated in 36 cases following the murder of Beant Singh, being acquitted in all but one. It also noted that another individual convicted in the same case, who was involved in the escape attempt, has already been moved from Tihar to a prison in Chandigarh.
The plea mentioned that Hawara’s daughter resides in Punjab, while his wife has passed away and his mother is in a coma in the US.
The plea stated,
“The mere fact that the petitioner was considered a high-risk prisoner years ago is not a good enough reason today to keep the prisoner in Delhi and not shift him to Punjab,”
The plea further questioned,
“The question that arises in this case is whether a person who has been accused of committing a murder in the context of serious social upheaval where tens of thousands of young Sikhs were extra-judicially executed by the state police on the instructions of the deceased Chief Minister Beant Singh, which offence has been characterised as exacerbated by his unsuccessful jail break attempt, but who has for the last 19 years led a life in prison which is without blemish can seek an order from this court for transfer to a jail in Punjab.”
In March 2007, Hawara was sentenced to death by a trial court, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in October 2010, ordering that he not be released for the remainder of his life.
His petition also noted that appeals from him and the prosecution against the high court’s decision are still pending before the Supreme Court.
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