CM seeks premature release of militant serving life sentence

CM AMARINDER HAS WRITTEN TO KARNATAKA CM KUMARASWAMY FOR RELEASE OF MILITANT GURDEEP KHERA ON BASIS OF THE LATTER’S GOOD CONDUCT

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday wrote to his Karnataka counterpart for premature release of militant Gurdeep Singh Khera on the basis of his good conduct.

Amarinder has asked HD Kumaraswamy to sympathetically consider the case of Khera, currently serving a double life sentence in Amritsar central jail after having been transferred from Karnataka’s Gulbarga jail in 2015.

In his letter, Amarinder sought Kumaraswamy’s indulgence in advising the prison department of his state for the reconsideration of the matter as Khera had been languishing in the jail for the past 25 years after being convicted in Delhi and Bidar bomb blast cases.

Notably, the Amritsar district magistrate had earlier taken up the case with the Karnataka government, which had intimated its inability under existing guidelines.

Meanwhile, the Punjab chief minister has also written to Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for expediting the transfer of Sikh political prisoner Harnek Singh Bhap, currently lodged in central jail, Jaipur, to a suitable prison in Punjab. He pointed that the director general of Rajasthan Police had already forwarded his recommendation to the home department in June this year and the final approval was awaited.

A Sikh delegation had approached the state government, through state the rural development and panchayats minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, with a request to raise the issue with the Rajasthan government.