Tara gets life term till death in Beant assassination case
CHANDIGARH: Khalistani militant Jagtar Singh Tara, convicted for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, was on Saturday sentenced to life imprisonment till death.
The court of additional district and session judge JS Sidhu pronounced the sentence in the highsecurity Burail Jail here where Tara is currently lodged. The court also imposed a fine of ₹35,000 on Tara and observed that ideological differences cannot be the reason for murdering someone.
Defence counsel Simranjit Singh said Tara would not challenge the order in a higher court. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel had pressed for capital punishment for Tara.
Beant Singh was killed in an explosion outside the secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Sixteen others also lost their lives in the incident. Tara had driven Punjab Police employee Dilawar, who acted as a human bomb in the incident, to the secretariat.
Tara was booked under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 109 (abetment), 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC and Sections 4 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act. He had confessed to his involvement in 1995 for the first time. He also submitted a confession letter in the court in January this year.
Tara was arrested in September 1995 in Delhi. However, he and two other accused escaped from Burail Jail during trial in 2004. He was later arrested from Thailand in 2015.