Bhai Daya Singh Lahoria

Daya Singh Lahoria, son of Kirpal Singh, is from Kasba Bharal in Sangrur district, Punjab. Sikh Siyasat News calls him a Sikh political prisoner, and he is counted among the Bandi Singhs, the Sikh prisoners whose release is demanded because they have served long terms. In January 2015 the Shiromani Akali Dal released a list of 13 such prisoners and asked the Centre to intervene, and The Tribune's account of that list includes him. The Tribune says the activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa and some Sikh organisations contend that the prisoners on such lists have served the mandatory time in jail.

The Tribune says he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 October 2004 by a Fast Track Court in Jaipur, in a case registered on 17 February 1995. It says he was charged with abducting the son of the Congress leader Ram Niwas Mirdha in Jaipur in 1995 to put pressure for the release of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, and that the son was rescued. According to The Tribune, he fled to the United States, was jailed there for offences there in 1995 and was extradited in 1997. It gives his custody as running from 3 August 1995, says he is lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi and has not taken parole, and says another case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is pending against him in Delhi.

Key moments

• 17 February 1995: the date on which, The Tribune says, the Jaipur case was registered.
• 1997: extradited from the United States, according to The Tribune. In 2018 the Rajasthan government's Additional Advocate General told the High Court he was brought from the USA under the extradition treaty, Sikh Siyasat News reports.
• 20 October 2004: sentenced to life imprisonment, The Tribune says.
• January 2018: Sikh Siyasat News reports that the Rajasthan High Court, under Chief Justice Pardeep Nandrajog, disposed of his petition for permanent parole without deciding its merits and told the state to consider his request at the next meeting of the committee that reviews such cases and to give a reasoned decision. The state's Additional Advocate General argued that he was not eligible for remission before 20 years of imprisonment; his counsel said he had served 20 years.
• January 2019: Sikh Siyasat News reports that he petitioned the Delhi High Court to let an Ayurvedic doctor treat him in Tihar, and that the court issued notice to the Delhi government.

The most recent reports found date from 2019, when he was still held in Tihar Jail.