“Give us Delhi Police and law-and-order responsibility for two days and we will hang Nirbhaya convicts,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday, 16 January, hitting back at the BJP for holding the AAP government responsible for the “delay” in the hanging.
Sisodia's retort came hours after Union minister Prakash Javadekar blamed the AAP government's “negligence” for the “delay” in the hanging of the four convicts, saying it took more than two-and-a-half years for the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation to give notice to the rapists after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal against the death sentence in 2017.
Terming it “unfortunate” that such a senior member of the Union Cabinet was “lying” on such a sensitive matter, the Delhi deputy chief minister said that he understands that the BJP “does not have issues to raise” in the upcoming polls but it does not mean that “they would do politics on such issues.”
‘Don’t Stoop So Low on a Sensitive Issue’
He said, “Javadekar ji the police is under you, the responsibility of law and order is under you, the Home Ministry is under you, the Tihar DG and administration are under you and you are blaming us? Please don't stoop so low on a sensitive issue. This is a clear attempt to instigate people.”
Sisodia, further told the reporters, “I want to ask you (Javadekar) why are you not taking responsibility. If you are not able to handle law and order of Delhi, give us Delhi police and law and order responsibility for two days and we will hang Nirbhaya convicts.”
The AAP government told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case — will not be hanged on 22 January as scheduled because one of them has moved a mercy plea and according to the prison rules, they cannot be executed till they exhaust all of their remedies under the law.
What Javadekar Said
Earlier in the day, BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said that all the four convicts would have been hanged by now, had the AAP government acted quickly and served notices to them immediately after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal against death sentence in 2017.
“If they have not been hanged yet, it is due to the AAP government's negligence... This delay of over two and a half years is due to the complicity of Delhi's AAP government. It has sympathies with these convicts, and this (delay) is a result of that,” he told a press conference.
Hitting back, AAP leader Sanjay Singh had said the BJP leader has spoken a “lie” and made “insensitive” comments.
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