HC refuses to suspend life term granted to 3 convicts

The trio has been convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court has refused to suspend life sentence to three persons from SBS Nagar district convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, for waging war against the state.

The high court bench of justice Jaswant Singh and justice

Sant Parkash, while dismissing their plea observed that it was not a fit case for extending the concession of suspension of the remaining sentence. “It has been established on record that incriminating material, propagating the cause of Khalistan, was recovered from the possession of the applicants,” the bench said.

The court was dealing with the plea of Arvinder Singh, Surjit Singh and Ranjit Singh booked on May 24, 2016 under the Arms Act and the on allegations of waging war against the state. They were convicted in January 2019.

Specifically, allegations against them are that they have been inciting people to resort to violence with the objective of waging war against the country, with a view to establish “Khalistan”.

As per prosecution, they were in touch through Facebook and WhatApp not only among themselves, but also with other suspects aboard. The material recovered was 97 books, 198 photographs and 13 photographs of Sikhs, who had died in the Saka of 1978 and 1,000 books in connection with biography of Sukhdev Singh Babbar.

In December 2020, they had approached the high court with a plea seeking suspension of the remaining sentence. “They stealthily declared war against India. They conspired to overawe the Government of India, thus, disturbing the normal tranquillity of a civilised society, ” the trial court had said in its judgment of conviction in 2019.

The high court while dealing with their plea for suspension of sentence further observed that a reasonable inference can be drawn that the primary object of keeping and distributing such material was the establishment of “Khalistan” on Baisakhi.

They kept the material with them with the intention of using it for propaganda and inciting the people to resort to violence to wage war against the country, the bench recorded adding that the offence, alleged to have been committed are “very serious” in nature. Hence, life sentence awarded can’t be suspended.

HC OBSERVES A REASONABLE INFERENCE CAN BE DRAWN THAT THE PRIMARY OBJECT OF KEEPING, DISTRIBUTING SUCH MATERIAL WAS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ‘KHALISTAN’ ON BAISAKHI