Guru can enjoy as govts undecided

NEW DELHI: The issue of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s mercy plea has become a political football between the Delhi government and the lieutenant governor (LG).

The Sheila Dikshit government sent back the file on Mr Guru’s mercy plea to Delhi LG Tejinder Khanna on Wednesday, agreeing with the Supreme Court verdict of death sentence for Mr Guru. However, it also put the onus of tackling the law and order implications of Mr Guru’s execution on the Centre, in a bid to put the final decision in the hands of the UPA government.

Top sources in the Delhi Congress said the file had been sent back to the LG with the required clarifications. Mr Khanna had returned the file to the Delhi government on Tuesday night seeking “urgent clarifications” after receiving the Delhi government’s opinion earlier in the day.

The state home department had sent the government’s opinion on the mercy plea filed by Mr Guru’s wife in 2006. It had agreed with the Supreme Court, which upheld the death sentence for Mr Guru. However, it said that the law and order implications should be closely examined while doing so.

Sources in the CM’s office said the state government had clarified on Wednesday that “law and order technically falls within the domain of the central government”. Agencies quoted the sources in the Delhi government as saying: “Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the opinion of the state government on mercy petition is not mandatory and in Delhi, we don’t have even law and order powers with us.”

That is, the Sheila Dikshit government has left it up to the Centre to decide whether it wants to go ahead with Mr Guru’s execution. The Delhi government has also separately conveyed to the Union home ministry that Mr Guru’s file is under “active consideration” in response to the 16th reminder by the Centre on the issue.

Even while the politically sensitive issue was far from decided, Congress and BJP reiterated their positions on the matter. BJP criticised the Delhi government for dilly-dallying on the matter and held a protest meeting in the Capital. Congress, for its part, said the matter was “outside its purview”.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the matter that would be decided by the President, the Centre and the Delhi government.

Mr Guru was awarded the death sentence by a Delhi court on December 18, 2002, after being convicted of conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001. The death sentence was upheld by Delhi high court on October 29, 2003, and his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court two years later on August 4, 2005.

Following this, Mr Guru’s wife filed a mercy petition with the President of India, who forwarded it to the Union home ministry for its comments. The case file was then forwarded to the Delhi government for its comments.