BJP raises pitch for Afzal Guru’s hanging

Mumbai Mirror

New Delhi, 28 May 2011: President Pratibha Patil rejecting the mercy petition of two convicts on death row, the Bharatiya Janata party on Friday raised its pitch for the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

 

The party said that the government was not bound to go by sequence while dealing with pending pleas.

 

“When will Afzal Guru be hanged? How long will his mercy petition be delayed? On August 4, 2005, the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal. It has been six years since then. The review petition was rejected on May 14, 2008,” said BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

 

On Thursday, the President had rejected the mercy petitions of Devinder Singh Bhullar, convicted in the Youth Congress office bombing here, and M N Das, who killed a person while being out on parole.

 

Prasad maintained that the government was not bound by law to go by the order in which mercy petitions were received.

 

Bharatiya Janata Party activists protest the government’s delay in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru

 

“Which law authorises the Government of India that consideration of mercy petitions would only be in sequence. Cases of serious crime are fast tracked. The Supreme Court has fast tracked the 2G case though thousands of cases are pending. Afzal Guru’s case was also fast tracked,” he said.

 

Prasad said that if Guru had succeeded in the Parliament attack of December 13, 2001, then all top political leaders would have been killed.

 

“You cannot go inside Parliament even with a small blade. Even if one terrorist were to enter inside with an AK-47, the entire leadership of all political parties would have been killed,” Prasad said.