Chandigarh: Facing the gallows, Balwant Singh Rajoana, the ex-police constable convicted for the murder of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has been granted parole to attend his father's last rites.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday accepted his plea for parole. Rajoana is currently lodged in Patiala Jail. The High Court in its order has asked the jail authority to allow Rajoana to attend his father's bhog on January 31 under police protection from 1 to 2 pm. Rajoana's father died on 22 January.
A double bench of Justice Ajay Tiwari and Justice Pankaj Jain of the High Court on Friday morning issued a direction to the Punjab government to find out the exact place and timing of the last rites. Ludhiana police station Sadar SHO Gurpreet Singh told the High Court that his father's last rites will be conducted on January 31.
Rajoana was sentenced to death by the court on July 27, 2007, for the assassination of former CM Beant Singh. On August 31, 1995, the then Chief Minister Beant Singh was assassinated in a bomb blast in the Punjab Civil Secretariat complex. Human bomb Dilawar Singh, too, was killed in the explosion along with 16 others.
Jagtar Singh Hawara, Paramjit Singh Bhyaura and Jagtar Singh Tara, the members of the Babbar Khalsa terrorist organization involved in the massacre, escaped in the year 2004 by building a tunnel in Burail Jail. Later they were caught. All of them have been sentenced.
Read: Death sentence of convict in Beant Singh assassination case commuted to life term: Officials
