news details |
|
|
| ‘Bhgat Singh was extra-constitutionally executed’ | | | NEW DELHI: A researcher has claimed that Bhagat Singh was illegally executed. The researcher, a Supreme Court Advocate Nafees Ahmad Sidiqqui has pointed out several lacunae in the trial. According to him, the authorities ignored the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The CrPC says that a murder trial shall be held by a court of sessions. However, in Bhagat Singh's case the trial was conducted by a Special Tribunal, Sidiqqui said.
Another serious lapse was the award of death sentence in ex-parte. Sidqui claimed that the Tribunal passed the death sentence in absence of the accused. "The accused were never taken to the court room on hearing days", he said.
As per the CrPC the death sentence passed by the court has to be confirmed by the High Court. In Bhagat Singh's case, the death warrant was executed without any confirmation from Lahore High Court, Sidiqqui claimed.
The execution could not be held on October 27, 1930, as scheduled as the then Punjab Government had suspended it after the convicts had sought the Privy Council's permission for challenging the sentence. In view of this, the warrant expired, rendering even the continued detention of Bhagat Singh and others illegal, Siddiqui contends.
Another lapse that also shows the desperation of the authorities to hang the accused came to fore on October 27, 1930. The death warrant had expired as the authorities had suspended it after convicts sought permission to prefer an appeal in the Privy Council.
Meanwhile, one Chint Ram Thapur filed a criminal miscellaneous petition (No. 36 of 1931) in the Lahore HC seeking the release of Bhagat Singh and others in the light of the expiry of the warrant. Pertinent to mention, the Special Tribunal had also expired and there was no authority to issue a fresh death warrant.
The then governor of Punjab, however, approached the High Court and sought a fresh death warrant. A warrant was issued and the execution was carried out on March 23, 1931.
Sidiqqui says that the execution was not in accordance with law. "It was a judicial murder", he opined. Sidiqqui sought an unconditional apology from the British Government.
This warrant issued Bhagat Singh, along with Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev, was sentenced to death on July 2, 1930, after a trial held by a special tribunal under ordinance No. 3 of 1930 issued by the then Governor General of India. They had been charged with the murder of Assistant Superintendent of Police JP Saunders. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
