By Arun Kumar

A Sikh advocacy group is seeking UN intervention to save Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar who has been given the death penalty in a 1993 car bombing case in New Delhi.
Bhullar, a former Khalistan Commando Force militant, was given the death penalty in 2001 by a Delhi court under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA). President Pratibha Patil rejected his mercy petition last month.
His wife, Navneet Kaur who lives in Surrey, B.C. is in India to lead the charge for her husband’s clemency, and said he was never in favour of Khalistan.
Navneet, 46, a Canadian citizen claimed that her husband, who was an engineering college teacher in Punjab, had been framed by police in the blast case. “Bhullar was never a Khalistani and the government should find out the killers of the 1993 blast and compensate their families,” she said.
“ Sonia Gandhi, who pardoned her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s killer Nalini, will also save my husband,” she said. The Bhullar couple does not have any child.
In a statement last weekend, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) said it will approach the United Nations to act on a 2008 UN General Assembly Resolution calling for abolition and moratorium on the use of death penalty by intervening to save Bhullar.
A memorandum seeking UN intervention in the case of Bhullar will be submitted to UN Secretary General July 25, it said. A rally to save Bhullar from “Judicial Murder” will also be held in New York City in front of UN that day.
The campaign and rally to save Bhullar has the support of World Coalition Against Death Penalty, American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International who have already launched a petition campaign to save Bhullar.
Canada’s main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has also joined the issue by asking the prime minister to intervene to save Bhullar who once taught at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College in Ludhiana.
In a letter to Prime Minister Harper, NDP leader Jack Layton has called Bhullar’s trial “questionable” and his conviction “doubtful”.
Questioning the trial, Layton said, “The evidence used against Prof Bhullar was reportedly obtained through torture while he was in custody in 2001.’’
The Canadian politician said human rights groups like Amnesty International have also raised serious questions about the way Bhullar’s “arrest, sentencing and trial were conducted.’’
According to these organizations, he said, Bhullar was arrested under the defunct TADA which allows “no provisions to appeal to the high court.’’
Layton alleged that Bhullar was found guilty based on “unsubstantiated confession made in police custody, while being tortured and threatened with death.’’
Diplomatic sources in India and Canada described Layton’s comments as unsubstantiated and an unwarranted interference into India’s judicial system.