The demand to release “Bandi Singhs” has become one of Punjab’s most persistent political issues, drawing the SGPC, Shiromani Akali Dal, AAP, Congress, BJP, hardline Panthic organisations and, more recently, supporters of jailed MP Amritpal Singh into competing campaigns. But “Bandi Singh” is not a legal category. The term brings together prisoners in very different situations, including death-row and life convicts, people already on parole and undertrials facing ongoing terror-related prosecutions.
The SGPC’s core campaign focuses on nine prisoners, including Balwant Singh Rajoana, Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Gurdeep Singh Khera. Seven are connected with the 1995 assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, in which he and 16 others were killed. Bhullar was convicted in the 1993 Delhi bombing targeting MS Bitta that killed nine people, while Khera received life sentences in bombing cases.
Over time, however, the definition has expanded. Lists have included dozens of prisoners and newer terror accused such as Jagtar Singh Johal, Hardeep Singh Shera and Ramandeep Singh Bagga. Amritpal Singh, who is an undertrial rather than a decades-old life convict, has also been brought into the release campaign by Akali Dal Waris Punjab De. This expansion has transformed separate legal cases into a broader political cause.
A central argument of campaigners is that many prisoners have “completed their sentences”. Legally, that description can be misleading. Life imprisonment ordinarily lasts for the convict’s natural life unless remission or commutation is granted. Fourteen years can make a prisoner eligible for consideration in certain cases, but does not automatically end a life sentence. Different governments may also have jurisdiction depending on where the conviction occurred.
The movement has grown through hunger strikes, the SGPC’s signature campaign and the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha’s permanent mobilisation near Chandigarh. It has also witnessed violent confrontations in which police personnel were injured and public property damaged. Meanwhile, Punjab’s political parties continue balancing Sikh sentiment, electoral considerations, humanitarian arguments and national-security concerns.
Individual cases can legitimately be reviewed for remission, parole or clemency based on age, health, conduct and law. But the article argues that blanket release through political or religious mobilisation risks turning men convicted of terrorism and murder into political heroes while pushing their victims out of the debate.
Read the full article on Chapter One Magazine.
