Chandigarh, Apr 1 — Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, has written to the Akal Takht seeking directions to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to withdraw his pending mercy petition.
In his letter, Rajoana urged that the plea filed with the President of India be withdrawn within 10 days. “Therefore my request is to withdraw the mercy plea… This should be done within 10 days,” he said.
He said nearly three decades have passed since his conviction and expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in a final decision. “It has been almost 30 years that I have been awaiting justice, yet no one seems to be bothered,” he wrote.
Rajoana also warned that he would go on a hunger strike if the plea is not withdrawn within the stipulated time.
This is not the first such appeal. In 2023, he had similarly written to the Akal Takht Jathedar seeking intervention to withdraw the mercy petition filed by the SGPC over a decade ago.
In May 2023, the Supreme Court of India declined to commute Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment and asked the Centre to take a decision on his mercy plea as deemed appropriate.
The mercy petition remains pending with the President.