IB warns Hawara's Punjab prison transfer could affect state polls

The Supreme Court reviewed Jagtar Singh Hawara's plea for transfer from Tihar Jail to Punjab. The Intelligence Bureau warned that the move could affect state polls and public order.Image used for representational purposes onlyNewdelhi,Nov 3, 2026 13:34 ISTThe Intelligence Bureau has told the Supreme Court that transferring Beant Singh murder convict Jagtar Singh Hawara from Delhi's Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab would have a major impact on the upcoming state elections, news agency Press Trust of India reported.The agency also said Hawara was a high-risk prisoner and should not be transferred to Punjab. Elections to the 117-member Punjab Assembly are due early next year.A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale told senior advocate S Muralidhar that the Intelligence Bureau's report was "very damning". Muralidhar submitted, "If elections are a concern, this may be taken up after three months." The court posted the matter for hearing in February next year.The Supreme Court had earlier directed the Delhi government to seek the Intelligence Bureau's views on Hawara's plea seeking his transfer from Tihar Jail to any prison in Punjab. Hawara, a Babbar Khalsa terrorist, is serving a life sentence for the assassination of then-Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995. Beant Singh and 16 others were killed in a blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Delhi government, had told the court that Hawara was involved in a jailbreak and that his death sentence in the murder case had been reduced to life imprisonment, PTI reported. Bhati argued that transferring Hawara could increase the chances of his escape and cited a Union Home Ministry advisory on moving high-risk prisoners. Referring to an affidavit filed by the Punjab government, she said his transfer could affect law and order in the state. She also said Hawara had been convicted in a case involving the digging of a tunnel in Chandigarh's Burail Jail.On September 27 last year, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre, the Chandigarh administration and the Delhi and Punjab governments on Hawara's plea.The petition said Hawara's conduct in prison had been without blemish, except for the jailbreak in January 2004. It argued that he should be moved from Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab because no case was pending against him in Delhi.Hawara, Paramjit Singh Bheora, Tara and murder convict Devi Singh escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh on January 22, 2004, after digging a tunnel nearly 100 feet long. Hawara and Bheora were arrested again within the next two years. Tara, who had been declared a proclaimed offender, was arrested in Thailand. Devi Singh remains absconding and has also been declared a proclaimed offender."The petitioner (Hawara) is currently serving his life imprisonment till the rest of his life in a case registered in the state of Punjab... He is a native of Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab, and ought to be confined in a prison in Punjab," the plea said.According to the petition, 36 false cases were filed against Hawara after Beant Singh's assassination, and he was acquitted in all but one. It said another person convicted in the same case and involved in the jailbreak had been transferred from Tihar Jail to a prison in Chandigarh."The mere fact that the petitioner was considered a high-risk prisoner years ago is not a good enough reason today to keep him in Delhi and not shift him to Punjab," the petition said, adding that Hawara's daughter lives in Punjab.The plea also submitted: "The question that arises in this case is whether a person who has been accused of committing a murder in the context of a serious social upheaval, where tens of thousands of young Sikhs were extra-judicially executed by the state police on the instructions of the deceased chief minister Beant Singh, which offence has been characterised as exacerbated by his unsuccessful jailbreak attempt, but who has for the last 19 years led a life in prison which is without blemish can seek an order from this court for transfer to a jail in Punjab."A trial court sentenced Hawara to death in March 2007. In October 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment and directed that he should not be released from prison for the rest of his life.Hawara's petition said appeals filed by him and the prosecution against the High Court verdict were pending before the Supreme Court. The court will hear his transfer plea again in February after the Intelligence Bureau opposed moving him to Punjab, citing his high-risk status and the possible impact on the state elections.- Ends