Khalistan ‘terrorist’ seeks freedom

Nishan Singh Jaimal Singh Sohel, convicted for extending financial help to pro-Khalistan extremists, has approached the Bombay high court seeking directions to Arthur Road Jail authorities to release him from prison as he had not only completed his 30-year jail term but also spent eight additional months behind bars.

Advocate Neel Govankar, on behalf of Singh, has filed a petition and requested the division bench headed by Justice V.K. Tahilramani to direct the Arthur Road prison authorities to release his client as he had already undergone the sentence awarded to him.

However, government pleader Aruna Kamat Pai told the court that the Supreme Court in the case of Union v/s Murgan, an accused in the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, had passed an order on July 9, 2014 saying all those accused who had been awarded life sentence under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) or any central government Act should not be released. The petition is still pending in court.

Ms Pai informed the bench that the government was examining whether there was an embargo that restricted the release of the accused or in what circumstances TADA convicts could be released.

Following this, the court asked the petitioner’s lawyer and the government pleader to examine the repercussions of the Supreme Court judgment and make a statement before the court. The high court is expected to hear this matter on Monday.

A government letter to high court in 2009 had recommended a 50-year jail term for a Nishan Singh. The letter had said that he should remain in jail for 50 years or till the age of 65. Aggrieved by this, Singh challenged the order in the Bombay high court and the court had reduced his sentence to 30 years.

The state’s letter invoked the amended guidelines of December 18, 2008, which gave the state the power to expand a sentence without the convict’s consent on the ground that if the convict was released, he might commit similar offences. The letter cited the seriousness of crime and its social implications, the convict’s political philosophy and the premeditated manner in which the serial offences had been committed.

Singh, however, had contended that the state letter violates the 1992 guidelines for consideration of premature release of life convicts.

According to advocate Gavankar Singh, Singh had completed his this sentence nearly 8 months ago but jail authorities were not releasing him.

The case in a nutshell Nishan Singh used to run a dhaba in Nashik and the police had arrested him for looting a petrol pump in Nabard. The prosecution’s case was that Singh had looted the pump as he wanted to extend financial help to a Khalistani terrorist organisation, and Singh was convicted for the crime. The government had informed the Bombay high court that his life term would get over after 50 years or at the age of 65, but later the high court reduced the sentence to 30 years.

The Khalistan movement was a nationalist political liberation movement that sought to create a separate country called Khalistan. The Land of the Pure in Punjabi — in the Punjab region. It reached its zenith in the 1970s and 1980s.