Kejriwal seeks clemency for Bhullar

New Delhi: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is bound to raise the Congress's hackles once again. He has written to the President, seeking clemency for Khalistani terrorist Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar who is on death row for the September 1993 bomb blast that killed nine people, including a youth Congress leader.

Bhullar's several review petitions against his death penalty and a mercy plea to the President were all rejected.

However, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a curative petition filed by Bhullar's wife seeking commutation of his death penalty into life imprisonment on grounds of delay in deciding his mercy petition.

The turn of events came after a landmark judgement by a five-judge Constitutional Bench that held that inordinate and inexplicable delay by government in deciding mercy pleas can be a ground for commuting death sentences. The bomb blast in September 1993 killed nine people, including the then Youth Congress leader MS Bitta, and injured over 20 others. Bhullar was sentenced to death on August 25, 2001.

Meanwhile, Delhi government has moved Supreme Court challenging Centre's CNG gas distribution policy.

A Delhi court refused to order lodging of a separate FIR on a plea by an African woman seeking registration of a case against unknown persons for allegedly molesting her during the recent midnight raid by a group purportedly led by city Law Minister Somnath Bharti.