Beant assassination: SC defers hearing on Hawara’s plea for transfer from Tihar Jail to any jail in Punjab

A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai deferred the hearing after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Chandigarh Administration, sought time to respond to Hawara’s plea.

The Punjab Government had on February 4 opposed Hawara’s petition seeking his jail transfer plea, saying he can’t be shifted to Punjab as he was tried in Chandigarh.

“In Punjab, he has no claim. If at all he is to be transferred, it is to the UT of Chandigarh,” the Punjab Advocate-General had told the Bench, adding a similar petition filed by Hawara was dismissed by the Delhi High Court in 2018.

The Advocate-General had submitted that Hawara was tried in Chandigarh where he did a jailbreak and Punjab prison rules would not be applicable to Chandigarh.

The Delhi Government had taken a stand that Hawara can’t be transferred to Punjab as it was a border state and that he can go back to Chandigarh, the Punjab Government had submitted.

The Bench had asked the Centre, the Delhi Government and the Chandigarh Administration to respond to Hawara’s petition seeking.

Hawara (54) has sought his transfer to a Punjab jail on grounds that he demonstrated good conduct in jail, the crime was committed at a time of social unrest and his daughter lived in Punjab. He contended that all co-accused involved in the jail break were in Punjab jails and the Director-General (Prisons) recommended his transfer to a jail in Punjab almost eight years ago on October 7, 2016. He also claimed that there was not a single case pending against him in Delhi and that he was unable to attend proceedings in a case pending in Punjab.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, representing Hawara, had during the previous hearing said Hawara had a 14-year-old daughter but he had no access to her. “All other convicts in the case are in Punjab,” he had submitted.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others were killed on August 31, 1995, in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Hawara was arrested on September 21, 1995.

A special CBI court had awarded the death sentence to Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Hawara in 2007 while o-accused Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh were sentenced to life imprisonment for hatching a conspiracy to assassinate the former Chief Minister.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in October 2010 modified Hawara’s sentence to life imprisonment for the rest of his life and the prosecution’s appeal against the high court’s order was pending in the Supreme Court. Rajoana’s mercy petition has been hanging fire for more than 12 years.

The top court had on September 27 last year issued notice to the Centre and governments of Delhi and Punjab on Hawara’s petition seeking his transfer from Tihar Jail in Delhi to a jail in Punjab.

Hawara, who escaped from high-security Burail jail on January 22, 2004, was rearrested after a year and put back in jail.

“Petitioner (Hawara) had 36 false cases foisted on him after the murder of the Chief Minister Beant Singh. He has been acquitted in all, except one case. He is unable to attend the court proceedings on account of his incarceration in Delhi. He is not being produced in Court and the proceedings are going on without him which is prejudicial to the Petitioner…,” he submitted.

India