Kejriwal Decries BJP’s ‘Politics’ on Nirbhaya Convicts’ Execution

President Ram Nath Kovind, on Friday, rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts in the case.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Union Minister Smriti Irani

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman

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Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal decried the politicisation of the execution of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case after Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday, 17 January, slammed the Aam Aadmi Party for “delay”.

“I feel sad politics is being done on such issue. Shouldn't we be working together to ensure guilty are hanged soonest?,” he wrote on Twitter.

“After the rejection of the review petition in July 2018, it was only because of AAP that the punishment to Nirbhaya’s rapists was delayed,” Irani was quoted by CNN-News18 as saying.

“Why was the prison department, which comes under AAP government, sleeping after dismissal of review petition in July 2018? Why did the government give Rs 10,000 and sewing kit to juvenile rapist when he was released? Didn’t they see tears of Nirbhaya’s mother?”

Union Minister Smriti Irani, as quoted by ANI

Earlier, BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar said 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, PTI reported.

"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.

Delhi Govt Had No Role in Delaying Hanging: Kejriwal

Rejecting the BJP’s accusation, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the victim's mother is being "misguided" and accused BJP leader Prakash Javadekar of politicising the matter, PTI reported.

"We sent the mercy petition within hours, so the Delhi government has no role in delaying the hanging of the convicts," he said.

Reacting to reports about the statement of Nirbhaya's mother – who said that those people who held protests on streets in 2012, today they are only playing with her daughter's death for political gains – Kejriwal said that she is being "misguided".

“Why would our government try to delay, we want them hanged at the earliest. I think she is being misguided. The Delhi government barely has any role in the whole process.”

Arvind Kejriwal

These comments came on the day when President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four men facing the gallows in the case, according to sources cited by PTI.

The rejection came after the Union Home Ministry forwarded the petition to the president late on Thursday night, they said.

The President has rejected Mukesh Singh's mercy plea, the sources said. After the rejection from the president, the Home Ministry sent the file to the Delhi government.

"It's a very good thing. Our hopes have gone up after the disheartening news that the execution might be delayed," the young woman's father told PTI as news came in of the rejection.

(With inputs from ANI, PTI and CNN-News18)