AMRITSAR (TIP): Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case, was admitted, June 12, to the psychiatry ward of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) here after he was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail from Tihar Jail in Delhi amid tight security.

 

Tight security arrangements were in place outside his hospital room where he was lodged. Central Jail Superintendent RK Sharma said a three-member medical board would examine the medical history of the convict.

 

The board concluded that his mental health does not allow him to be kept behind  bars and, therefore, he was referred to the GNDH.  Before Bhullar was admitted to the hospital, a medical team headed by Dr PD Garg, head of psychiatry department, examined him.

 

They went through his previous medical record and the treatment he was getting during his imprisonment in Tihar Jail. Dr Garg said he was suffering from acute schizophrenia and also having  suicidal tendencies besides hypertension. He said a medical board would be constituted to examine mental health of the patient on a daily basis.

 

“We will keep him here for at least two weeks. His stay would be extended depending upon his mental condition,” he said.

 

Bhullar has been allotted a separate air conditioned room in the psychiatry ward of the hospital, which is located on the first floor of Swami Vivekanand De-addiction and Treatment Centre. A television set has been installed in his room which has a single bed and attached washroom facility.

 

The centre had turned into a fortress before his arrival. A large number of policemen were deputed outside the centre and the passage inside. Nobody was allowed inside the premises where a large number of his supporters and members of radical Sikh organizations flocked to meet him.

 

Earlier, he arrived at the jail in an ambulance amid tight security and escorted by the vehicles of Punjab police and Delhi police.

 

Bhullar was in Tihar Jail for the past two decades following his conviction in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case. This death sentence, scheduled on August 25, 2001, was commuted to life imprisonment by the apex court. His wife Navneet Kaur had demanded his shifting to Amritsar in view of his poor health. The Delhi government led by Aam Aadmi Party had cleared the request for Bhullar’s transfer.