Jail authorities fail to produce Tara in court

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24

The authorities of Burail Jail failed to produce Beant Singh assassin and key accused in the jailbreak case Jagtar Singh Tara in court today and sought time till tomorrow to produce him.

The jail authorities stated before the court that Tara was under restriction to move out of Burail Jail as Section 268 of the CrPC (person shall not be removed from prison till the completion of the trial), imposed on him when he was first arrested for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, was still valid.

The jail authorities have now moved a plea before the state government for relaxation of Section 268 imposed on Tara so that he can be produced before the court. The operations cell of the UT police have also moved an application before the state government seeking relaxation so that they can interrogate Tara in the Burail jailbreak case.

The Court then today issued fresh production warrants for Tara directing the jail authorities to produce Tara in court tomorrow when the appeal seeking his police custody will come up for hearing. The production warrants for Tara have been issued after his counsel told court that he is unaware whether Tara has actually engaged him as his counsel or not. The court had first issued warrants yesterday and again issued warrants today.

Tara had escaped from the jail on the intervening night of January 21 and 22, 2004, along with Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, convicted of Beant Singh’s assassination and their cook, Devi Singh, a murder convict who is still at large. After remaining at large for 11 years, Tara was arrested in Thailand in January this year and extradited to India on January 17.

The appeal seeking his custody was moved by the operations cell of the UT police last week after Duty Magistrate Harpreet Kaur had rejected the police remand of Tara on February 17.

The UT police had moved the appeal stating that the lower court had "prevented and curtailed" the police from investigating the jailbreak case in a proper manner. During his brief interrogation in the case, held on court’s permission on February 17, Tara had revealed some more information, which, the police state, may be important in the investigation.

Why did you refrain from arguing the case, Judge asks counsel

Additional District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal today asked advocate AS Chahal why he had refrained from arguing the appeal case, resulting in inconvenience to the court as it had to then issue production warrants for Tara. Chahal replied that he did not know whether Tara wanted him as his counsel and it might create a problem for him later on.

Production warrants for Tara by CJM court too

With the jailbreak case, involving 17 accused, including Beant Singh assassins Hawara, Bheora and Tara, coming up for hearing on February 25, the court of CJM Anubhav Sharma also issued production warrants to produce Tara in the case on Wednesday. Advocate AS Chahal has moved an application stating that Tara, who was declared a proclaimed offender, "has to be tried in the chargesheet, already pending, or separately".