Balwant Singh Rajoana
| Balwant Singh Rajoana ਬਲਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਰਾਜੋਆਣਾ |
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|---|---|
| Born | 23 August 1967 Rajoana Kalan, Punjab |
| Residence | Patiala Central Jail |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Occupation | Former Police constable |
| Known for | Participation in the conspiracy to kill Beant Singh |
| Title | Living Martyr (Punjabi: ਜ਼ਿੰਦਾ ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) by Akal Takht |
| Movement | Khalistan movement |
Balwant Singh Rajoana is the prime accused and convicted for the assassination of Beant Singh (former Chief Minister of Punjab) on 31 August 1995. Rajoana was sentenced to death on 1 August 2007 by a special CBI court in Chandigarh. Beant Singh was killed by Balwant Singh's associate Dilawar Singh Babbar and Balwant Singh was the backup human bomb to be used had Dilawar failed in his mission.
Balwant Singh was born in Rajoana Kalan village near Raikot in Ludhiana district of Punjab in a Jatt Sikh family on 23 August 1967.He joined the Punjab Police. According to his elder brother Kulwant Singh, Balwant was a pacifist and was opposed to any kind of violence. As a child, he was fond of reading ghazals, novels and poetry. The works of Surjit Paatar and Jaswant Singh Kanwal played an important role in shaping his ideology.
In Punjab between 1992 and 1995, at a time when the Khalistan separatist movement was active in the state and the Indian government was aggressively seeking to control the movement. It is alleged that, during Beant Singh's tenure, upwards of twenty-five thousand of Sikh civilians disappeared or were killed and their bodies cremated by the police in extrajudicial executions. Rajoana, who was a police constable at that time, conspired with Dilawar Singh Jaisinghvala, a police officer, to kill Beant Singh. Based on a coin toss, Dilawar Singh Jaisinghvala was chosen to be the suicide bomber with Rajoana as a backup. The attack on 31 August 1995 resulted in the death of Beant Singh and 17 others, and, on 25 December 1997, Rajoana confessed his involvement.
Balwant Singh had “openly confessed” an involvement and strongly expressed no faith in Indian judiciary. He refused to defend himself and refused to take a lawyer. He accused Indian courts of applying dual standards of law and the Indian judicial system of shielding the culprits of 1984 anti-Sikh riots. ”Asking for mercy from them (Indian courts) is not even in my distant dreams” Rajoana said in an open letter to Media.
Explaining his actions, Balwant Singh referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and talked about how the perpetrators had not been punished even after 25 years. In a letter to the Chief Justice of the High Court, he complained about discrimination at the hands of the country's judicial system and the rulers. Rajoana defended his actions citing the 1984 Operation Blue Star offensive at the Golden Temple and the killing of Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
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Wikipedia