Prisoner on death sentence Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is lodged in Patiala Central Jail in connection with the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and is facing a death sentence, has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Through the letter, Rajoana has urged the government to take an early and final decision on his mercy petition, which has been pending for a long time. This is one in the series of many letters Rajoana has written to the Centre seeking final decision on his mercy plea.Appealing to the Prime Minister, Rajoana said that the “government should take a decision on his mercy plea” without any further delay, even if “the decision is to uphold his death sentence”. He has mentioned how he has remained in jail without knowing his fate for the past 31 years and has sought a final resolution to his long-pending plea.In a letter dated September 16 from Patiala Central Jail barrack, Rajoana said he had spent more than three decades in prison and had been living under a death sentence for nearly two decades. He said the petition concerning his sentence had been awaiting a government decision for about 15 years.Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was convicted for his involvement in the August 31, 1995, bombing outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh that killed Beant Singh and 16 other people. A special court sentenced him to death in 2007 and his execution was scheduled for March 31, 2012. However it was later stayed after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), submitted a mercy petition to the President of India.Rajoana referred in his letter to a 2019 government decision announced around the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. The government had at the time announced special remission for several Sikh prisoners. Rajoana questioned why the matter had remained unresolved despite that announcement.He also referred to the central government’s earlier position before the Supreme Court on delaying a decision on the mercy petition.The Home Ministry had told the Supreme Court in 2022 that it had deferred a decision because of what it described as the potential impact on national security and law & order in the border state of Punjab.