Afzal Guru: Government did not intend to inform his family in advance

NEW DELHI: The authorities made sure that the family of Parliament attack accused Mohammad Afzal was not informed that he was about to be hanged at 8 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail on February 9, the sequence of events pieced together by ET shows.

Three senior officials have revealed the home ministry went all out to ensure that the family of Afzal would get neither the speed post sent from Tihar Jail nor a call from the J&K authorities before the hanging to confirm whether they had got the letter.

Home secretary RK Singh had said last week that he had called the J&K DGP Ashok Prasad at 8 pm before the day of the hanging, asking him to confirm with the family whether they had received the letter sent from Tihar Jail.

However, the officials, who shared the details of the preparation for the execution carried out in secrecy on the condition of anonymity, said the MHA asked the DGP not to check with the family till the next morning, when the execution was scheduled for 8 am. That explains why the family got the news from the television channels.
An MHA spokesperson said he would not like to comment on the matter. When asked earlier if the J&K DGP had confirmed with the family the receipt of the letter before the execution, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had evaded an answer.

By the time the TV channels broke the news, Guru had not only been hanged but also buried in the jail in accordance with a directive from the Delhi administration, with the jail authorities saying that there was no request from the family to claim it.

But the delay in informing the family robbed it of the chance to claim the body as per the jail manual.

The India Post website has no details on where the letter was in transit on February 9, the day of the hanging. ET has found out that though a local court in Delhi had fixed the date of the hanging on the afternoon of February 7, the jail authorities booked the speed post letter only at 12:07 am on February 8. As per India Post, it takes four-six days to deliver a speed post to non-metros.

The letter was bagged by the GPO, Delhi, for Srinagar at 3:19 am, dispatched for Palam at 5:51 am and reached Palam at 7:39 am on February 8. It was finally airborne for Srinagar at 10:29 am on February 8, about 21 hours before the hanging.

However, an online track of the letter on the India Post website shows the letter was received by the postal authorities in Srinagar only at 1:03 pm on February 10, almost 46 hours after being dispatched from Delhi.

The postal authorities in Srinagar bagged the letter for Sopore at 4:52 pm on February 10 and it was received by the postal authorities in Sopore the next day at 9:50 am amid the curfew clamped in the valley.

"Item delivered to Ms Tabbusum (Guru's wife) at 11:02 am, February 10," the speed post record shows.

So, though the speed post reached the family in 58 hours instead of the promised delivery time of four-six days, the family got it much after the hanging.