Chandigarh, Nov. 3 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred until February 2027 the hearing on a plea by Jagtar Singh Hawara, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking transfer from Delhi's Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) warned that the move could have serious implications for the state's upcoming assembly elections.
A bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale took note of a confidential IB report describing Hawara as a high-risk prisoner and expressing apprehensions that his transfer could affect law and order and the political atmosphere ahead of the elections.
The court described the intelligence assessment as "very damning" and expressed ...