The Supreme Court deferred the transfer of convict Jagtar Singh Hawara to a Punjab prison until February. The Intelligence Bureau warned that moving him could impact upcoming state elections. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale reviewed the report, while Hawara’s lawyer suggested waiting until after the polls.
New Delhi: The Intelligence Bureau told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that transferring Beant Singh murder convict Jagtar Singh Hawara from Delhi's Tihar Jail to any prison in Punjab could impact the upcoming state elections.
The IB also told the top court that Hawara falls in the high-risk category and may not be transferred to Punjab.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale described the agency's report as "damning". Following the court's observation, senior advocate S Muralidhar, appearing for Hawara, submitted: "If elections are a concern, this may be taken up after three months."
The apex court subsequently posted the matter for hearing in February next year.
Elections for the 117-member Punjab assembly are due early next year.
The court had earlier asked the Delhi government to seek IB inputs on Hawara's plea to be moved to a Punjab jail.
Hawara, a Babbar Khalsa terrorist, is serving a life term for the August 31, 1995, assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in a blast at the Chandigarh civil secretariat entrance that killed 17 people.
Hawara, along with Paramjit Singh Bheora, Jagtar Singh Tara, and murder convict Devi Singh, escaped Chandigarh's high-security Burail Jail on January 22, 2004, by digging a 100-foot tunnel. Hawara and Bheora were re-arrested within two years, while Tara was later caught in Thailand. Devi Singh remains at large.
Hawara was sentenced to death by a trial court in March 2007. The Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted it to life imprisonment without release in October 2010. Appeals against the verdict remain pending in the Supreme Court.
In his petition, Hawara argued that except for the 2004 jailbreak, his prison conduct over the last 19 years has been unblemished, and no cases remain pending against him in Delhi. He noted that he is a native of Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district and that his daughter lives in the state.
The plea added that Hawara was acquitted in 35 of the 36 cases registered against him following the assassination, and pointed out that another convict from the same case involved in the jailbreak had already been transferred to Chandigarh.