“The mercy petition case of death convict Mohd. Afzal Guru has since been submitted to the President’s Secretariat on July 27, 2011 for a decision,” Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran informed Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Media report however suggests that the home ministry has recommended President of India to reject the mercy plea of the 2001 Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru. However there is no any official confirmation of this news.
The principal Opposition party, BJP, however, said that Guru should be hanged as per the orders of the apex court and should not be shown any mercy.
The minister was replying to the question as to why the government was not taking steps with regard to expediting the pending mercy petition of death row convict Guru.
Asked whether there is any provision under the Constitution for deciding upon any “clemency petition” against capital punishment as per sequence of its submission, the minister said, “There is no Constitutional provision. It was an administrative decision to ensure fair and urgent treatment of all cases”.
Guru was convicted for conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006.
Guru’s execution was later stayed following a mercy petition filed by his wife. But he remains on death row.