New Delhi, Nov 3 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 will have a huge impact on 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 comprising Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale told senior advocate S Muralidhar that the agency's report is very damning.
Muralidhar then submitted, “If elections are a concern, this may be taken up after three months.”
The top court posted the matter for hearing in February next year.
Elections to the 117-member Punjab Assembly are due early next year.
Earlier, the apex court had directed the Delhi government to seek inputs from the IB on Hawara's plea seeking transfer from Tihar to any prison in Punjab.
The Babbar Khalsa terrorist is serving a life term for the killing of then-Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Delhi government, had informed the top court that Hawara was involved in a jailbreak and his death penalty was converted to life imprisonment in the murder case.
Contending that transfer may increase chances of his escape, Bhati referred to an advisory by the Ministry of Home Affairs on the transfer of high-risk prisoners.
She also referred to an affidavit filed by the Punjab government, and said Hawara’s transfer could affect the law and order situation in the state.
Bhati said Hawara has been convicted in a case for digging a tunnel in the Chandigarh jail.
On September 27, last year, the apex court issued notices to the Centre, Chandigarh administration and the Delhi and Punjab governments on Hawara's plea.
Hawara is serving imprisonment for the rest of his life for the blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, which killed Beant Singh and 16 others.
The plea filed in the apex court said Hawara's conduct in prison has been without blemish except for the jailbreak incident in January 2004.
It said he should be transferred from Tihar Jail to any other prison in Punjab as there is no case pending against him in the national capital.
Hawara, Paramjit Singh Bheora, Tara and a murder convict, Devi Singh, escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh on January 22, 2004, by digging a nearly 100-foot-long tunnel.
Hawara and Bheora were re-arrested within the next two years. Tara, a proclaimed offender in that case, was arrested in Thailand, while Devi Singh is absconding and has also been declared a proclaimed offender.
“The petitioner (Hawara) is currently serving his life imprisonment till the rest of his life in a case registered in the state of Punjab... He is a native of Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab, and ought to be confined in a prison in Punjab,” the plea said.
According to the petition, Hawara had 36 false cases against him since the assassination of Beant Singh, and he was acquitted in all except one. One person convicted in the same case and also part of the jailbreak has been shifted from Tihar to a jail in Chandigarh, it said.
“The mere fact that the petitioner was considered a high-risk prisoner years ago is not a good enough reason today to keep him in Delhi and not shift him to Punjab," it said, adding that his daughter is in Punjab.
“The question that arises in this case is whether a person who has been accused of committing a murder in the context of a serious social upheaval, where tens of thousands of young Sikhs were extra-judicially executed by the state police on the instructions of the deceased chief minister Beant Singh, which offence has been characterised as exacerbated by his unsuccessful jailbreak attempt, but who has for the last 19 years led a life in prison which is without blemish can seek an order from this court for transfer to a jail in Punjab,” the plea submitted.
Hawara was sentenced to death by a trial court in March 2007.
In October 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment with a direction that he shall not be released from jail for the rest of his life.
Hawara's petition said the appeals filed by him, as well as by the prosecution against the high court verdict, are pending in the apex court.
