From rxpgnews.com
Delhi High Court takes up Lalit Maken's assassin's plea
By IANS,
Apr 16, 2007 - 8:19:51 PM
New Delhi, April 16 - The Delhi High Court Monday began hearing the appeal of the assassin of Congress leader Lalit Maken and his wife, who were gunned down by Khalistani extremists outside their Kirti Nagar residence in West Delhi 22 years ago.
A bench headed by Vikramajit Sen began hearing Ranjit Singh Gill's petition, challenging his conviction and sentence of life in jail for killing Maken and his wife Geetanjali on July 31, 1985.
Gill was convicted and awarded life term Feb 24, 2003 by a trial court on charges of gunning down Maken and his wife, the daughter of former president Shankar Dayal Sharma.
Additional Sessions Judge R.K. Jain did not award the death penalty to Gill on the hopes that the convict would emerge a reformed man after undergoing life term.
'There are not only chances of his being reformed and settled in life peacefully but he already appears to be a reformed person and therefore, I do not intend to award him capital punishment,' the trial court judge had said in his ruling.
Gill has been in jail for the past 20 years. A recent Supreme Court ruling interpreted life term as the entire span of life in jail.
The apex court order said though the government can release a lifer after 14 years or 20 years, the convict may not demand his release as a matter of right after 14 years.
According to the police, five Khalistani militants, including Gill, had gunned down Maken and his wife on the fateful day as they emerged out of their residence to go out to attend a social function.
Two others of the Maken's assassins, Harjinder Singh Zinda and Sukhdev Singh were executed in 1992 for assassinating former Army chief General A.S. Vaidya. The third, Sukhwinder Singh had been killed in an encounter, while the fourth, Daljit Singh had been acquitted in 1999 for lack of evidence.
According to the chargesheet, Gill and other terrorists of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan were motivated by a book, 'Who are the Guilty'.
The book was said to have dealt with Maken's alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that erupted in the capital and elsewhere in the country in the wake of assassination of Prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh security guards.
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