'Sikh prisoners in jail for 3 decades', Manish Tewari seeks debate on remission policy
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Aug, 2022 10:54 AM
New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) A day after convicts in the infamous Bilkis Bano case were released, Congress leader Manish Tewari on Tuesday took up the case of Sikh prisoners languishing in jails and called for a uniformity in the definition of remission policy.
"There must be uniformity across the country about definition of life imprisonment & remissions permissible".
"While some convicts walk free after 15 years others languish in jail for 30 years or more?Classical case- Sikh Prisoners in jail for 03 decades," he said in a tweet.
All 11 life imprisonment convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven members of her family on Monday walked out of Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy.
A special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment on the charge of gang-rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family on January 21, 2008. The Bombay High Court had later upheld their conviction.
According to reports, the convicts had served more than 15 years in jail and one of them had approached the Supreme Court with a plea for premature release.
The apex court had directed the Gujarat government to look into the issue of remission of his sentence following which the government formed a committee.
Lt Gen Aujla, an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, was commissioned in December 1987 and has had an illustrious military career spanning 35 years during which he has held varied prestigious command, staff and instructional appointments.
The area around the Intelligence Bureau office has been sealed and investigation is in progress. A bomb disposal and forensic squads have been positioned at the spot. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann spoke to Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra and sought details about the incident.
Notably, the police detained several people, including party workers, who were not allowing the SDMC to carry out the demolition drive at Shaheen Bagh. After the agitation was quelled, the bulldozer moved forward to demolish the illegal encroachment, an iron structure in front of a building. It is at this juncture that Khan reached the spot and was seen speaking to the officials.
Punjab shares a 553-km barbed-wire fenced international border with Pakistan which is under the vigil of nearly 135 BSF battalions. The drug network operates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route.
Police are looking at this angle. The incident took place near Kengeri at 1 a.m. and the injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. According to the police, the bus had first hit the 4-feet tall road divider and then rammed into the Namma Metro Pillar number 545.
Chairing a meeting of the Special Task Force (STF) team led by its chief Harpreet Sidhu here, Mann said neither political persons nor officers would be spared if found conniving with the drug mafia. He told the police officers to work freely without any political pressure with a sharpened focus to make Punjab a drug-free state.
