The Beant Singh murder case, which was involved in the country’s most famous murder case, is once again in the news. In fact, recently, the Supreme Court has ordered to list the petition related to the conviction of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the Beant Singh murder case. This petition was filed on behalf of Rajoana’s lawyer. Let us inform that, Beant Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Punjab, was assassinated at a time when the entire province was surrounded by the fire of separatism.
Chief Minister Beant Singh was present at the Chandigarh Secretariat on the day of the incident and was blown up by a bomb. Apart from Beant Singh, about one and a half dozen people were killed in this bomb blast. Beant Singh was known to control the separatist forces in Punjab. Beant Singh took over as the Chief Minister of Punjab in the year 1992. In such a situation, let me tell you what happened on that day.
In the 80-90s, there was a period of separatism in Punjab, which was under President’s rule for a long time to control. When the state’s atmosphere calmed down a bit, Beant Singh became the CM, but the challenge was still spreading. Beant Singh was successful in extinguishing this fire to a great extent with his understanding, but after a few years he himself came under the grip of this.
Beant Singh was sitting in the car inside the CM Secretariat on 31 August 1995 when a loud explosion took place. For a few minutes there was just the sound of a bang, there was a cloud of dust and then there was silence. After this people reached the spot and saw that only blood and rags of flesh were lying all around. 17 people including Chief Minister Beant Singh lost their lives in this blast. It was learned that Dilawar Singh, an employee of Punjab Police had come as a suicide bomber.
After this incident, a person named Balwant Singh Rajoana was arrested, who himself was ready for a suicide attack if the plan failed. The trial went on in the murder case and two years later in 1997 he confessed to the crime. The name of self-styled commander of Khalistan Tiger Force Jagtar Singh Tara was revealed as the main conspirator of this entire attack.
On July 27, 2007, Balwant Singh, Jagtar Singh Tara along with 4 others (Naseeb Singh, Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Lakhwinder) were convicted in the Beant Singh murder case. Another accused was acquitted. On July 31, three days after their conviction, Balwant Singh, Jagtara Singh were sentenced to death in the Beant Singh murder case. While Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Lakhwinder got life imprisonment and Naseeb got 10 years imprisonment.
Jagtara Singh appealed against this decision in the High Court and his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. However, the conviction of Balwant Singh Rajoana was upheld. Let us tell you that Balwant Singh Rajoana himself was also a part of the Punjab Police, but in the 1990s, his links were associated with the Khalistani separatist organization Babbar Khalsa. At present, the process to commute the sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana is underway and he is in jail for the last 25 years.