GULBARGA: The Karnataka government has sought clarification from the Gulbarga jail authorities regarding the transfer of Bidar bomb blast convict Gurdeep Singh Khaira based on a letter received from various organizations in Punjab. Gurdeep who has been in prison for 23 years now has requested the state government to shift him to any jail in Punjab as he wants to meet his aged parents.
Gulbarga jail superintendent Somashekhar told TOI that they had received a letter from the government asking whether they could transfer Gurdeep from Gulbarga jail. He said he had replied that the government could transfer him to any jail as he had shown good conduct and had served 23 years in jail.
“After receiving the letter from the government, we had asked Gurdeep to write to us formally seeking transfer. He has done so now. We will forward it to the government,” Somashekhar said.
Speaking to TOI, Gurdeep at Gulbarga central jail, said he had sought a transfer as he was the only son and his parents were above 80. “They are too old to travel from Punjab to Gulbarga to see me,” he said.
He said he was arrested in 1990 when he was 29-years-old and didn’t get parole even once. Several Sikh organizations have been holding hunger strike in Punjab for the release of six Sikh inmates and one of them is Gurdeep Singh Khaira.
Factfile
In 1988, six Sikh students studying in Bidar were killed during the wave of anti-Sikh attacks. In 1990, Gurdeep Singh was arrested following the Bidar and Delhi bomb blast cases, that were deemed to be revenge attacks in retaliation to the Sikh murders. He was later convicted in two separate cases under TADA in 1996 and 2001 in Delhi and Karnataka respectively. To date, Gurdeep has served eleven years in Bidar Jail, nine years in Tihar Jail and from 2010 onwards he has been imprisoned at Gulbarga Jail.
