JOIN USAfter spending nearly 25 years in Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) jail in Karnataka as a convict in two separate cases under TADA in 1996 and 2001, 55-year old Gurdeep Singh Khera was relocated to the Central jail, Amritsar, in the early hours on Friday.
Khera is the second prisoner to be shifted to Punjab in the last two weeks. Earlier, Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who was convicted in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case, was shifted from Tihar jail in New Delhi to the Amritsar jail. There are plans to shift Bhullar to a mental hospital for treatment.
Khera was brought to Amritsar by train amid tight security. Many supporters, who have been seeking release of the Sikh prisoners who have served their jail term and are languishing in various jails across India, were present at the Ludhiana railway station en route Amritsar. Holding banners in support of Sikh prisoners, they waived in support of Khera.
Khera is a native of Jallupur Khera in Amritsar and was arrested under TADA and later sentenced to life imprisonment in two different cases registered in 1996 in New Delhi and Karnataka. Ever since his arrest, Khera has not been out even on parole.
The relocation of the two convicts has found the approval of the ruling SAD in Punjab.
However, its ally, the BJP, has opposed the move saying the Akali Dal had not consulted it before according consent to relocating the two terrorists.