Nirbhaya’s father had said that the Delhi government was sleeping for two years in taking initiatives to hang the convicts in the case. He said that while the Supreme Court had rejected the review petitions of the convicts, Delhi govt didn’t move further and sought death warrant from the court only when elections were near.
Nirbhaya’s father speaks to TIMES NOW’s Priyank Tripathi; blames @AamAadmiParty for the delay in the hanging of the rape convicts.
‘They used Nirbhaya to come to power in Delhi’, says Nirbhaya’s father.
Listen in. pic.twitter.com/iVljserVqi
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 17, 2020
Badri Nath Singh, the father of the 2012 Delhi gangrape and mother victim, said that the AAP government in Delhi came to power using the Nirbhaya case, and now they are again using the case for politics. Accusing the AAP of playing a game over the case, he said that the govt moved only after Nirbhaya’s parents approached the court to expedite the hanging of the convicts. He said that the central government had no role in the case, and it was state government’s responsibility, and Kejriwal was playing game.
Earlier today, Asha Devi, mother Nirbhaya, broke down over the delay in the execution of her daughter’s rapists. She urged people not to play politics over the death of Nirbhaya. She urged Prime Minister Modi to hang the four rapists by January 22nd.
#WATCH Asha Devi, mother of 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim: Till now, I never talked about politics, but now I want to say that those people who held protests on streets in 2012, today the same people are only playing with my daughter’s death for political gains. pic.twitter.com/FvaC89TwKI
— ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2020
Asha Debi said that people who had protested demanding justice for her justice were now playing politics over the case. She said that while she had not talked about politics earlier, now the hanging of the convicts was delayed for political benefits, and her family was made a pawn in this game of politics.
She said that while someone is blaming others for delay in hanging, the other side was saying give us police we will do it in two days. Ashe Devi was refering to BJP and AAP exchanging allegations over the issue. She also urged the PM Modi to bring a change in the law, like he made law on triple talaq, so that convicts on death row are executed immediately.
Her statement comes a day after a Delhi Court put a stay on the execution. The Court made it clear that the stay wasn’t a review of its earlier decision. On Wednesday, Rahul Mehra, the lawyer representing Delhi Government had informed the Court that the convicts could not be hanged on January 22nd since Mukesh Singh, one of the rapists, had filed a mercy petition to the President of India.
Prakash Javedkar, a Minister in the Central government, squarely blamed AAP for the delay in ensuring justice to Nirbhaya. He asked as to why did the Delhi Government not send notices to the convicts for filing mercy petitions for 2.5 years.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar: The hanging of the convicts in 2012 Delhi gang-rape case is now delayed because of Delhi govt’s negligence. AAP is responsible for the delay in justice. Why did Delhi govt not give notice to the convicts for filing mercy plea in last 2.5 years? pic.twitter.com/wpny0vcd5h
— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2020
In 2017, the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty for the convicted men in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case. The Tihar jail administration did not bother to issue a notice to the convicts, asking them to file review petitions.
Eventually, 3 convicts filed a review petition in the Supreme Court. The 4th convict did not. The jail authorities did not ask the 4th convict if he wanted to file a review petition. After the review petition was trashed for the other three convicts, the Tihar jail stayed unmoved. Again, it did not send any notice, a mandatory rule under the Jail Manual. Moreover, jail rules also state that if more than one convicts are on death row for the same crime and one of them files a mercy plea, then, the execution for others too will be stayed until the plea is decided.
However, sources suggest that jail authorities have verbally corresponded with the convicts but not in writing. Following an intervention by the trial court in September 2019, the notice was finally issued to the convicts in October. Another notice was issued in December 2019.
Finding itself in a state of fix, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia came to the government’s rescue. He challenged the BJP to hand over Delhi police to the State government and in return would hang Nirbhaya’s rapist in two days. He also accused the BJP Minister of “lying” to the people.
It is true that the Delhi Police runs under the supervision of the Central Ministry of Home Affairs. Having said that, it is crucial to point out that the Department of Tihar Prisons works under the Delhi government and its additional Inspector general reports directly to the state government. As such, the Tihar administration and the AAP government cannot pass the blame to the Central Government.
The Delhi government has however recommended the Death penalty for the convicts to the Lieutenant Governor. The same was forwarded to the Union Home Ministry. It recommended the “death penalty” for the convicts as well to the President.
On 17th January 2020, the President rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh Singh. After President rejected the petition, Tihar jail approached the court for reissue of the death warrant. Accordingly, a Delhi court has issued fresh death warrants for the four convicts and ordered that they will be hanged at 6 AM on February 1.
