1981 Air India hijacking case: Delhi court grants bail to 2

  • | Friday | 21st July, 2017

JALANDHAR: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to two Sikh hijackers , who have been put on trial here after 36 years of the incident. The HC asked the trial court to proceed with the matter. Their lawyers argued before the court that Satnam and Tejinder had already been tried once, convicted and sentenced in the case. The court had on Tuesday granted two-day interim bail to the duo after they appeared before it. Satnam hails from Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh but lives in Chandigarh, while Tejinder is from Jalandhar.Senior advocate Mohit Mathur and Manisha Bhandari represented the accused in the court.

JALANDHAR: A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to two Sikh hijackers , who have been put on trial here after 36 years of the incident. The two have already served life term in Pakistan for hijacking an Air India plane in 1981 to Lahore (Pakistan).Granting them regular bail, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Jyoti Kler asked Satnam Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh to furnish a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties of like amount each. A fresh trial against them under sedition charges will begin on July 31. The court had on Tuesday granted two-day interim bail to the duo after they appeared before it. Satnam hails from Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh but lives in Chandigarh, while Tejinder is from Jalandhar.Senior advocate Mohit Mathur and Manisha Bhandari represented the accused in the court. Their lawyers argued before the court that Satnam and Tejinder had already been tried once, convicted and sentenced in the case. And hence they serving another punishment would be unfair.They also pointed out that earlier a Delhi court had discharged Satnam and they were being tried again on the basis of photocopied documents as the court records had already been destroyed.The case against the duo dates back to September 29, 1981, when they had allegedly hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from New Delhi en route to Srinagar via Amritsar and forced it to land in Lahore, Pakistan, where they were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.Both were deported in 2000 from Pakistan after serving life-term for hijacking.They had later sought their discharge but a sessions court had dismissed their plea. In 2011, the Delhi Police had chargesheeted them under various sections including 121 (waging war against the government of India), 121A (conspiring to commit certain offences against the state), 124A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The HC asked the trial court to proceed with the matter.

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