President's decision final on Bhullar case: Gurudas Kamat

Union minister of state for home Gurudas Kamat today declined to comment on the rejection of the mercy petition of death row convict and Khalistan militant Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar saying that the president's decision was final verdict in the matter.

"The president gave the decision (rejecting the mercy petition) after consideration of the case. She gave the final decision and it would not be appropriate for me to comment on a decision taken by the president," Kamat, who is also minister of state for communications and information technology, told reporters in Chandigarh.

The dismissal of the mercy petition resulted in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab, various other Sikh bodies including the Amritsar-based Shriomani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi-based DSGMC and Dal Khalsa raising the demand for review of the rejection of the mercy petition to save Bhullar from death sentence.

The opposition Congress has also demanded that Bhullar's death sentence be commuted with state unit president Amarinder Singh in his "personal capacity" also saying that the death would not solve any problem.

President Pratibha Patil had on May 26 rejected the mercy petition of Bhullar, a member of Khalistan Liberation Force.

Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001, for plotting terror attacks on Punjab Sehajdhari Sikh Party Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and the then Youth Congress head MS Bitta in 1993.