Beant Singh’s assassination: How political mood around a convict is changing

Jagtar Singh Hawara, accused of the Beant Singh assassination, coming out from the district courts complex, Sector 17 of Chandigarh. (Express Archive Photo by R.P.Sharma) 5 min readAmritsarAug 14, 2026 03:08 AM IST First published on: Aug 13, 2026 at 04:10 PM IST For years, Jagtar Singh Hawara was a name Punjab’s political establishment treated with extreme caution. Born on May 17, 1970, in Hawara village of Fatehgarh Sahib, Hawara was convicted for his role in the 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister and Congress leader Beant Singh and regarded as a high-risk prisoner. After his dramatic escape from Burail Jail in Chandigarh in January 2004, successive Punjab governments were reluctant even to keep him in a Punjab prison. So, since he was re-arrested by a Delhi Police Special Cell team in June 2005, he has remained lodged in the Capital, first in high-security Tihar and now in Mandoli jail.