NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has rejected the plea for the premature release of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, while recommending the premature release of self-styled NSCN (M) ‘lieutenant’ Hopeson Ningshen, who was convicted in connection with the abduction and killing of three Manipur government officials in the state’s Ukhrul district in February 2009.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Delhi’s Sentence Review Board (SRB), held last December.
According to a letter issued to the Director General of Prisons, Tihar, on February 5, the SRB considered 51 cases for premature release in its meeting held on December 23, 2025. Of these, 24 cases were rejected. Bhullar’s name figured among those denied early release.
Sources said, the SRB recommended premature release of Ningshen, subject to concurrence of the Central government. Besides, the SRB rejected the premature of Bhullar. He was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people and injuring of 31 in the blast in 1993. Among those who survived the attack is former Youth Congress chief M S Bitta.
Bhullar was awarded the death penalty by a designated TADA court in August 2001, but his capital punishment was commuted to a life sentence in 2014. He was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on health grounds in June 2015. In 2022, his premature release case was deferred by the SRB, despite his “poor health condition” and “vegetative state”, officials said. Later, his premature release was declined by the SRB in its meeting in 2024.
The Centre had in September 2019 recommended special remission to eight Sikh prisoners, including Bhullar, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. However, his release was objected to by few members of the SRB based on the fact that his action as a terrorist claimed innocent lives and sending him out at a time when voices in favour of Khalistan were trying to resurrect abroad and in Punjab would embolden them further, the sources said.
The issue of Bhullar’s release had resurfaced in recent months after Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney had urged the Delhi government to convene the SRB and reconsider the case.