States » NorthPosted at: Sep 17 2026 6:11PM


Rajoana writes to Modi seeking early decision on mercy petition

Chandigarh, Sep 17 (UNI) Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced to death for his role in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an early decision on a mercy petition that has remained pending for years.
In a letter dated September 16 from Patiala Central Jail, Rajoana said he had spent more than three decades in prison and had been living under a death sentence for nearly two decades. He said the petition concerning his sentence had been awaiting a government decision for about 15 years.
"I request you to take whatever decision you want to take on the petition as soon as possible," Rajoana wrote, according to a copy of the letter reported by local media.
Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in the August 31, 1995 bombing outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh that killed Beant Singh and 16 other people. A special court sentenced him to death in 2007.
His execution was scheduled for March 31, 2012, but the federal government stayed it three days earlier after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a Sikh religious body, submitted a mercy petition to the President of India.
Rajoana referred in his letter to a 2019 government decision announced around the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak. The government had at the time announced special remission for several Sikh prisoners and said Rajoana's death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment.
Rajoana questioned why the matter had remained unresolved despite that announcement.
He also referred to the central government's earlier position before the Supreme Court on delaying a decision on the mercy petition.
The federal home ministry told the Supreme Court in 2022 that it had deferred a decision because of what it described as the potential impact on national security and law and order in Punjab, a border state.
Rajoana challenged that reasoning in his latest letter, saying: "I am an ordinary person with nobody behind me or ahead of me. What threat can I pose to the security of the country?"
The Supreme Court in 2023 declined to commute Rajoana's death sentence on the ground of delay and left it to the competent authority to consider his mercy plea, saying the matter involved sensitive issues.
In his letter, Rajoana also referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and Punjab's period of militancy, while making allegations against successive governments and state agencies. Those allegations could not be independently verified.
He urged Modi to bring the long-running process to an end by taking a decision on the pending petition.
"I will continue, until my last breath, to fulfil my duties towards my land and my community," Rajoana wrote.
He signed off the letter from Patiala Central Jail, saying he was waiting for the government's decision after spending 31 years in prison and about 20 years under the shadow of the death sentence.
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