“Why didn’t you hang him till now?” Justice Sandeep Mehta of the Supreme Court asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj Wednesday when hearing Babbar Khalsa militant Balwant Singh Rajoana’s petition for commutation of his death penalty to life term on the ground of delay in the decision on his mercy plea.

While Rajoana’s execution was not a straightforward affair back in March 2012, given the political dynamics in Punjab, it is perhaps even more politically complicated now.

Rajoana was the backup bomber to Dilawar Singh — both of them were police constables — who blew himself up at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, killing then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 over the conspiracy in

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