1984
1984 Mass Murderer To Have Life Sentence Commuted:
He Was One of Handful, Out Of Thousands, To Be Ever Convicted
by ABHISHEK SHARAN
Kishori Lal (48), lodged in Tihar Jail since 1996, will soon be a free man.
Lal, convicted of multiple murders in the 1984
anti-Sikh pogroms in Delhi, is serving a life term.
Acting on the recommendations of the State Sentence Review Board (SRB), Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Tejendra Khanna recently commuted the sentence of Lal and 14
other life convicts to give them a chance to "reform and rehabilitate
themselves", said a jail source.
The jail authorities had recommended Lal to the SRB because of his "excellent conduct as an inmate and the fact that at 48 years of age, he stands a chance to rehabilitate himself," said the source.
Lal and the 14 others need to furnish a surety and personal bond, each, worth Rs 10,000 ($200) to be released. The surety and personal bonds are to be submitted to the state revenue department.
Life convicts, who have served a minimum of seven years in the jail, are eligible to get their sentences commuted by the SRB, though the granting of the application is not mandatory, because it depends on the nature and severity of the crimes.
The prison's spokesperson Sunil Gupta said, "This must be one of the highest instances of convicts' sentences getting commuted on the SRB's recommendations."
"The SRB includes the chief minister, who is the chairperson of the board, a nominee of the city police chief, a nominee of judicial authorities, chief probation officer and director general of prisons," said Gupta.
The recommendation for commuting a life convict's sentence is sent to the SRB by the jail authorities after procuring approvals from the concerned police and probation authorities.
While Lal has spent around 16 years in jail, 13 others, including a woman, have served between 14 and 20 years and another convict got his sentence commuted as he is suffering from terminal cancer.
Lal, a former butcher who stayed in east Delhi's Trilokpuri, had been accused of stabbing victims in the neighbourhood. He had been sentenced to death seven times by the lower courts. The Supreme Court, later, commuted them to life terms. Lal was among 25 people, convicted by city courts for offences connected to the 1984 pogroms.
[Courtesy: Hindustan Times]
February 12, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Ravinder Singh Khalsa (U.S.A.), February 12, 2012, 10:43 AM.
The Indian government has no shame and neither do many Sikhs that support India without understanding the true impact and purpose of the genocide that was, and still continues to this day. These people that killed innocent Sikhs should be hung and so should the criminals identified by 'Sikhs For Justice'. It wasn't that long ago that Sikhs had their own country and it will be created again.
2: Lakhvir Singh Khalsa (Nairobi, Kenya), February 12, 2012, 12:46 PM.
Like Guru Nanak would ay, 'vuss de rahho', is all I can say because clearly, nothing can change those that are hell-bent and unrepentant.
3: G.C. Singh (U.S.A.), February 12, 2012, 2:55 PM.
For the genocide of tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs, only an insignificant number of low level criminals (they can be counted on finger tips) were prosecuted and handed down light sentences by the Hindu judiciary. In many cases, these token sentences are also being appealed and the criminals are roaming freely. A handful of Hindu mass murderers who are still in jail are being provided with all the amenities and possibly vacation time with family members. All efforts are being made by the government, as in the case of Kishori Lal, to free them on some excuse or the other. The Indian establishment - political, law enforcement, and judiciary - has worked in tandem to protect all well-known and well recognized Hindu leaders who organized and led the murderous mobs. On the contrary, an innocent Sikh student activist and dissident, Professor Devinder Pal Singh, who was extradited by the government from Germany and who was acquitted by Justice Shah is being held for the last 17 years in solitary confinement in a dark 9'X6' cell which also serves as his bath and toilet. When will Sikhs understand that there is no justice for Sikhs in India and that the only effective levers of political, economic and a strong Sikh military will enable them to live with dignity and honor on the sub-continent?
4: Mai Harinder Kaur (U.S.A.), February 13, 2012, 4:31 AM.
I will hold my temper. I will not go ballistic. It is a Khalsa's duty to remain in control of herself whatever the provocation - and this is extreme. Here are the bare bones of the one murderer's case: Death sentence (7 times) was reduced to life imprisonment (16 years), which is now being reduced to freedom (for $200). Let's get real, though. Some of the murderers are in high positions in the Indian government. Unless we are very stupid - and we aren't - we should realize that we will never get justice in India. Editors, please allow me one growl. GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR ... Thank you.
5: Harinder (Uttar Pradesh, India), February 13, 2012, 7:38 AM.
Thanks to 1984, Sikhs from a Punjabi virsa became a global virsa. We are now free explore the different universes as contemplated in the Guru Granth ...
6: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), February 13, 2012, 3:58 PM.
These kinds of things really frustrate us in the diaspora ... but I wonder if they frustrate the Sikhs equally in Punjab and India?
7: Gurmeet Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), February 14, 2012, 2:36 PM.
And the likes of Prof. Devinderpal Singh Bhullar still rot in Indian jails when no crime has been proven against them ... Sunny (#6): the answer to your question is a "No". The blood of the Sikh-Indians does not boil at such things anymore. It is we who still can't sleep nights over 1984. [And that is why they label Sikhs of the diaspora as "terrorists!]
8: Satveer Kaur (London, United Kingdom), February 16, 2012, 5:03 AM.
I genuinely believe that the Indian government is doing this - as well as many other anti-Sikh things - to mock us. Sikhs in Punjab have little control over their minds, let alone their fate, because most of them are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Many "survivors" of 1984 are too scared to take any action because they've lost their strength. Many Sikhs in the diaspora are too ashamed, guilt-ridden or ignorant to look back at India. A lot of them are as Khalistan-phobic as the Indian government. It can therefore be concluded that the majority of Sikhs will not react to such a thing, thus giving the Indian government the power and ability to do what they like and to kill anyone who opposes them because that will be a mere minority of Sikhs. Our only chance seems to be to prepare the coming generation so they can do something, because it doesn't seem like we can change the minds of millions of people. Maybe then we, as a race, can redeem ourselves so we won't have to adorn the title of a fallen nation, for we aren't a standing one.