Life Sentence For Hawara, Death For Balwant

[Azaad]

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.”

[Azaad]

Balwant Singh has kept his promise made to his “human bomb” friend Dilawar Singh by deciding not to defend himself in the Beant Singh assassination case. The verdict in the case could have been different had Balwant Singh defended himself. But his three confessional statements and no evidence in his favour prevented the Punjab and Haryana High Court from having “a second thought” on the death sentence awarded to him by the trial court.

Apparently, Balwant Singh wanted the high court to order his hanging, as just before the assassination he had promised Dilawar Singh that he would not defend himself. But this is just one bizarre fact of the intriguing tale.

You may dismiss it as “too strange to be true”, but for deciding who would become the human bomb for eliminating the then Chief Minister, Dilawar Singh and Balwant Singh flipped a coin. Dilawar Singh won the fatal toss and agreed to lose his life. Balwant Singh then tied explosives around Dilawar.

Before triggering off the blast, he asked co-conspirator Balwant Singh to confess his hand, which he has done in less than four years after the assassination.

The “perfectly planned” operation went kaput after the conspirators failed to retrieve the car. It could have gone unnoticed, but for fate and strange hand of nature.

Soon after the blast, two cops on duty felt the urge to smoke away from the public glare. In their anxiety, they hopped into an open Ambassador car. Little did they know it was the one used by the assassins.

They discovered that the interiors of the car were grey, while the exterior was white. Curious, they opened the glove compartment and found bits of evidence inside.

Later, they came to know the car was used to reach the spot. While the assassins managed to get the vehicle painted “Franko white” for matching the colour of government-owned cars to make access to the secretariat easy, the moisture in the air due to rains prevented them from getting the car touched from inside.

This is not all. Talk to the investigators, witnesses and even assassins; and they tell you strange tales of intrigue, conspiracy and coincidences, which even a master of macabre could not weave so dexterously. Some of the stories are not part of the court record, but have been gathered during the trial covered over a period spanning three years.

Soon after the car’s discovery, the investigators launched a massive search for the number plate painter. The lines drawn with thread dipped in blue (neel) for aligning the letters and digits on the plate indicated that it had been painted freshly. The search took them to Mohali.

In the meantime, car painter-cum-prime witness Surinder Sharma saw the snaps of the vehicle flashed in all newspapers. Apprehensive, he was still contemplating future course of action when a cop arrived for the replacement of his bike’s clutch wire. His presence made him jittery. Thinking that the cops had discovered the truth, he spoke out everything.

[NeverForget84dotcom]

The spirit of Jinda Sukha resides within Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana...an inspiration for us all

[mohinder pal]

Panth's Future is Written by the Blood of Martyrs. They Kill More SIkhs.....more and more would be born.

[Southall Youth]

[chatanga]

amazing Sikhs. hope the panth will honour Balwant Singh.