SAD exposes Kejriwal's 'lies' on non-release of Bhullar

Chandigarh, Jan 31 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday claimed to have exposed Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal's 'lies' on the release of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar by releasing a list of office-bearers of the Sentence Review Board and minutes of its meeting held on Bhullar.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Harcharan Singh Bains, Principal Advisor to SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal, said that Kejriwal was trying to befool Punjabis with his assertions that he has nothing to do with the release of Bhullar, whereas the reallity is that five out of seven members of the Sentence Review Board are directly connected to him.

Bains said Delhi Home Minister Satendra Jain was the Chairman of the board, whereas B.S. Bhalla, Principal Secretary (Home), Delhi, Sandeep Goel, DGP (Prisons), Sanjay Kumar Aggarwal, Principal Secretary (Law and Justice), Delhi, and Rashmi Singh, Director, Social Welfare, Delhi, were the members who are directly associated with Kejriwal.

Bains said this board held a meeting on December 11, 2020, in which it rejected the plea for the release of Bhullar.

Bains released the minutes of the meeting to media and said that it was his Cabinet colleague who led the board to reject the plea of Bhullar.

He said Kejriwal should desist from misleading Punjabis on the issue now when it has been proved that he was responsible for Bhullar not being released.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had recently sought the immediate release of Bhullar in the "larger interest of consolidating peace and communal harmony" in the state.