The Times of India, January 30, 2002

Details on convicts pardoned by Haryana sought

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2002  11:50:30 PM ]

CHANDIGARH:The Punjab and Haryana High Court, on Tuesday, directed the Haryana government to provide complete details by way of an affidavit about all those persons who had been convicted by courts but subsequently granted pardon by the government and let off from 1996 to 2001.

These directions were issued by a division bench, comprising Justices G S Singhvi and Bakhshish Kaur, on the resumed hearing on the writ petition filed in 1998 by Rohtakbased Sat Pal Kadian.The petitioner had pointed out that persons convicted for having committed serious crimes, including murder, attempt to murder, dacoities etc, were let off by the Bansi Lal regime because these persons were allegedly well connected politically.

The petitioner had listed then chief minister Bansi Lal, then home minister Mani Ram Godara, then minister Karan Singh Dalal, former Lok Sabha member and industrialist O P Jindal, present BJP Lok Sabha member from Faridabad R C Bainda and IAS officer Roshan Lal, among the respondents.

While adjourning the hearing to February 18, 2002, Justices Singhvi and Kaur also directed that a copy of the affidavit should also be provided to the respondents.The petitioner, while expressing grave concern at the release of such convicts, had sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the entire episode.