Slugfest over execution, BJP blames Delhi govt for delay
NEW DELHI: Union minister Prakash Javadekar, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in-charge for the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections, on Thursday blamed the Aam Aadmi Party government for delay in hanging of four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
“The gang rape case convicts have not been hanged so far because of the irresponsibility of AAP government. There is a process of giving notice to convicts sentenced to death by prison authorities, so they can take legal action. This was not done for 2.5 years,” Javadekar said.
This delay is complicity of the Delhi government, he added.
“Now the hanging cannot happen on January 22. If they had been given notice as per rule soon after the death sentence was announced in 2017, the accused would have been hanged by now. The AAP government is responsible for the delay in justice,” said the Union minister.
New Delhi MP Meenakshi
Lekhi said, “The way in which the court had to stay the hanging of the convicts of December 16 rape case with a strong observation, people of Delhi feel ashamed and Arvind Kejriwal will have to take moral responsibility for it. Kejriwal Government has been deliberately delaying the case and due to this Nirbhaya did not get justice even after seven years.”
The government on Wednesday said the four convicts will not be executed on January 22 as a mercy petition has been filed.
Citing prison rules, the state government said they are duty bound to wait for a convict’s mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the gang-rape and murder case — Mukesh and Vinay Sharma — challenging the May 2017 judgment of the court that had upheld their conviction.
Immediately after the rejection of the curative petition, Mukesh filed his mercy plea before the President. He also moved the Delhi High Court challenging the decision of issuance the death warrant by an additional sessions judge, stating that his mercy petition was pending before the President.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday that the Delhi government has recommended rejecting the mercy petition. Sisodia said the government had worked at lightning speed to make sure there was no delay by the city government.