Balwant Rajoana, convicted of assassinating the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, today wrote to the Akal Takht urging it to direct the SGPC to withdraw the mercy plea filed by it to the President of India. He has written a letter to the SGPC urging it to “withdraw the mercy plea pending with Centre within 10 days”.In his fresh letter to the Akal takht Jathedar, Rajoana says it has been almost 30 years that he has been awaiting justice, yet no one seems to be bothered.“Therefore my request is to withdraw the mercy plea,” he wrote in the letter. “This should be done within 10 days,” he added.Earlier in 2023 too, Balwant Singh Rajoana had written to the Akal Takht Jathedar and appealed to him to intervene and withdraw his mercy petition, filed by the SGPC almost 12 years ago. Rajoana has threatened to go on hunger strike if the plea, which is pending with the President of India, is not withdrawn within the next 10 days.In May 2023, the Supreme Court had refused to commute the death sentence of former Chief Minister Beant Singh assassination case convict Balwant Singh Rajoana to life imprisonment and asked the Centre to take a further decision on his mercy plea as and when deemed necessary.In that letter to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, Rajoana said no one in Delhi and Punjab seemed to be bothered about the mercy plea, which has been pending for the last 12 years. “If it is not withdrawn in the next 7-10 days, I will be left with no option, but to go on hunger strike. For someone who has been in jail for the last 28 years and awaiting death penalty, going on hunger strike is sad,” reads the letter written from the Central Jail, Patiala.Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special court. In September 2025, the Supreme Court had questioned why he had not been hanged till then. “The question is why didn’t you hang him till now? Who is to be blamed for that? At least we would not have stayed his execution,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath told Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj, who represented the Centre.As Rajoana’s mercy petition under Article 72 of the Constitution continued to hang fire, the Supreme Court had on January 20 set March 18 deadline for the Centre to take a call on the contentious issue, failing which it will proceed to decide the matter on merits.“We are giving you the last chance… Either you decide or we will hear the case on merits,” the Bench had told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who represented the Centre. But things have not moved forward since then.Rajoana (58) — a former Punjab Police constable — has been in jail for almost 30 years, awaiting his execution. The former Punjab Chief Minister and 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. A mercy petition filed by the SGPC on his behalf has been hanging fire for more than 13 years.