Person
Bhai Paramjit Singh Bheora
Convicted in the 1995 Beant Singh assassination case, he escaped Burail Jail through a tunnel in January 2004 and was caught in March 2006; one of the Bandi Singhs, still in jail.
Paramjit Singh Bheora is one of the men convicted in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, and one of the three accused who escaped from Burail Jail through a tunnel in January 2004. The Tribune called him an aide of Jagtar Singh Hawara and a member of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI). When he was caught in 2006 it reported Delhi Police as describing him as the BKI's India operations chief. He is one of the Bandi Singhs.
His custody has two stages. He was first arrested in the Beant Singh case in the mid 1990s (the Tribune has given 1996 and 1997) and held at Burail. Charges were framed against him and eight others on 30 April 1996, and the Tribune reported that he was awarded a life sentence. After the escape came a second arrest in 2006.
Key moments
- 31 August 1995: Beant Singh was killed by a human bomb outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.
- 21 to 22 January 2004: Bheora, Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara and a cook, Devi Singh, escaped from the Model Jail at Burail through a tunnel. Five jail officials were suspended.
- March 2006: Delhi Police arrested him after an exchange of fire on GT Karnal Road. Police said they recovered 4 kg of RDX, detonators, pistols and ammunition from the stolen car he was travelling in.
- 11 August 2015: a Chandigarh court convicted Hawara and Bheora under Sections 120B and 224 of the Indian Penal Code for the escape. It ruled that the time they had already served counted as their sentence.
- August 2025: the Tribune listed him among seven convicts in the Beant Singh case still in jail.
- 12 October 2026: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said parole for Bheora and Tara falls under the Chandigarh Administration, and that he would raise their cases with Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, who is the Administrator (PTI, through ThePrint).
Known for: his part in the Burail escape of 2004, and more than two decades in custody since his arrests.
Sources
- Of 21 Bandi Singhs, nine getting parole since 2013, The Tribune. tribuneindia.com
- Centre, states mum over release of Bandi Singhs, The Tribune, 15 Feb 2023. tribuneindia.com
- Front page report on the arrest of the Babbar Khalsa India chief (21 Mar 2006), The Tribune, 21 Mar 2006. tribuneindia.com
- An escape that turned out to be a bridge too far, The Tribune, 19 Mar 2015. tribuneindia.com
- Fourteen acquitted in 2004 Burail jailbreak case, The Tribune, Aug 2015. tribuneindia.com
- Bittu favours release of Bandi Singhs; BJP goes all out to woo Sikh electorate, The Tribune, 20 Aug 2025. tribuneindia.com
- Beant Singh assassin Rajoana's death sentence commuted (charges framed on 30 April 1996), The Tribune. tribuneindia.com
- Will leave no stone unturned to secure release of Bandi Singhs: CM Mann (PTI, 12 Oct 2026), ThePrint. theprint.in
- How Beant Singh's assassin got 'life' on Guru Nanak's birth anniversary, The Week, 12 Nov 2019. theweek.in