Who is professor davinderpal singh bhullar

So since in offences tried under the Indian Penal Code, the confession statements made before the police officers are not admissible as evidence, Daya Singh Lahoria was acquitted on the same charges, in the same trial, whereas Devender Pal Singh Bhullar was convicted. He faced the trial for six years.

He was sentenced to Death by the designated judge, Delhi on 25 Aug , simply on the basis of his alleged confession recorded by a Deputy Police Commissioner during the police remand, which was recanted by Bhullar at the very first opportunity as that was obtained by coercion and torture. The prosecution miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and failed to produce any reliable witnesses. There was no eye-witness in the case, nor did anybody identify Devender Pal Singh as the person who planted the bomb in the car.

Simply the police officials who recorded the confession were produced by the prosecution and the trial court convicted the accused purely on the basis of that confession.

It is essential mention over here that in the case relating to the Bomb blast in which Sumedh Singh Saini IPS officer of Punjab, who was in on deputation as SSP Chandigarh, Devender Pal Singh Bhullar was acquitted of his charges by the Designate court of Chandigarh on 1st Dec , as the prosecution could not produce any evidence worthwhile for convicting Bhullar. By convicting Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and awarding Death Sentence on the basis of the said confession, the trial court as well as Supreme Court not only committed a grave error of law, but also diverted itself from the usual practice and procedure laid down in other judgments under TADA.

The confirmation of capital punishment upon Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and subsequent dismissal of his review petition by the Supreme Court vide the judgment dated Justice M. Shah, Mr. Justice B. Aggarwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat in a case under TADA and there after dismissal of the review petition as well as curative petition by the same bench is grave injustice.

Bhullar has suffered in limbo for the past eight years. He suffers from numerous health problems as a result of the continuous stress. It is unacceptable that he faces execution based on evidence extracted under torture. Bhullar is one among them. The final and formal nod has to come from Delhi for the premature release as a part of standard procedure. After he was shifted from Tihar jail to Amritsar Central Jail, Bhullar was admitted to Swami Vivekanand De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre at Amritsar for the treatment of psychiatric ailment he had developed while being in jail for long.

He had been there since. He had been going out on parole since then as the commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment made him eligible for availing parole. Currently, too, Bhullar is on parole which ends later this month, Navneet said.

Navneet, who hails from Amritsar, said that the health condition of her husband shows improvement when he is home. The permanent release would mean he will remain at home and his health condition will continue to improve. Before Bhullar became eligible for parole after commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment, the duo remained together for barely three months after their marriage in September Bhullar, who traces his roots to Dialpura in Bathinda district, was a professor in Guru Nanak Engineering College at Ludhiana when the duo married.

Navneet has been asserting that Bhullar had no role in that. Bhullar was named in the case. In , when Bhullar was still on the run, Bhullar and Navneet decided to have a go at leaving India for Canada. While Navneet reached Vancouver safely, Bhullar, according to her, was apprehended by authorities at Frankfurt airport while he was changing planes and did not have proper documentation.

Professor Bhullar has spent more than 20 years in jail and remains imprisoned. The injustice in Professor Bhullar's case is further exemplified when comparing to the case of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. Dutt was convicted under TADA in for his involvement and purchasing of weapons from those responsible for the Mumbai serial blasts.

After serving 18 months, Dutt was allowed to leave prison, and in November he was acquitted under TADA and charged with a lesser conviction with the Arms Act.

Under the Arms Act, Dutt received a six-year sentence and served approximately three and a half years Bhatt, On February 25, , he was granted early release from prison based on good behavior BBC, Professor Bhuller's plight and the unequal treatment of minorities by India's judicial system has been brought to attention by human rights campaigner Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa.

Bapu Surat Singh has been on a hunger strike since January 16, , calling for the release of political prisoners. Due to his continued struggle, Professor Bhullar was granted a transfer from Tihar Jail to Amritsar Jail after more than twenty years in June The continued unequal treatment and arrest of minorities has also been addressed by the Indian Supreme Court.

Specifically referring to the use of TADA, the Supreme Court has warned against police officers abusing their power to target innocent individuals and cause sufferance BBC, As Indian celebrities and police officers continue to receive leniency in their convictions and sentences which include murder and life imprisonment , Sikh political prisoners such as Professor Bhullar remain in jail with little or no evidence.

It is estimated there are more than Sikh political prisoners being kept in jail in India, which have served more than their given sentences The Logical Indian, Some state governments, such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, have already taken the initiative to release political prisoners.

More states, including Punjab where most of the Sikh political prisoners are being imprisoned, need to do the same and release these prisoners as well. But what is beyond disturbing and unbearable is the helplessness that Sikhs find themselves in every time India hangs one of ours on the noose to make a statement, or kills one in a fake encounter, or worse - when, on the global stage, the crimes against the innocents are justified as curbing terrorism and the perpetrators of the mass killings and disappearances are venerated as the face of anti-terror.