Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of the mastermind in Beant Singh assassination case to life imprisonment, while it upheld the trial court penalty to four other accused in the case.
A division bench of the court comprising Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Arvind Kumar termed the case of Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was awarded capital punishment by the trial court in 2007, as a "boundary line for death" and converted his sentence to life.
"It was found that Hawara was not found near Chandigarh on July 30 and 31 in 1995...his case is boundary line for death...he is sentenced to life and will not be released till death," Justice Gill said while pronouncing the order.
However, the bench upheld the capital punishment of Balwant Singh awarded by trial court in July 2007. Besides, the bench also upheld the life sentence of three accused Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh.
Barring Balwant Singh, all the accused had filed an appeal against the trial court order in the High Court where the case was heard regularly since February and the arguments were concluded in September this year.
The bench also observed that Balwant Singh had made three confessional statements on his involvement in the killing of the then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.
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