Home Ministry to receive Afzal Guru's file in a week

The file on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's mercy petition, which is with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, will be sent to the central Home Ministry within a week, an official said Thursday.

The file on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's mercy petition, which is with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna, will be sent to the central Home Ministry within a week, an official said Thursday.

HT Image

The Delhi government had sent Guru's file to the Lieutenant Governor May 19 after giving clarifications sought from his office.

"The file is being studied on an urgent basis. It will be sent at an early date," Khanna's OSD, Ranjan Mukherjee said.

An official in the lieutenant governor's office said the file is being "studied minutely and urgently", and will be sent directly to the Home Ministry within a week.

The official said Guru's file was sent back to the Delhi government which did not oppose his execution but commented on the law and order situation in its wake. "That comment was unwarranted from a government which doesn't have control over law and order," the official added.

Guru, a resident of Sopore in the Kashmir Valley, was found guilty of plotting the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack and was sentenced to death by a trial court in December 2002.

The Delhi High Court confirmed the death penalty in October 2003.

The Supreme Court had also upheld capital punishment for Guru. Guru's wife, Tabassum, filed a mercy petition with the President after the apex court's verdict.

As per procedure, the President sought Home Ministry's views on the mercy petition in 2005.

The procedure on mercy petition requires Home Ministry to seek comments of the state government in whose jurisdiction the crime, for which the death penalty is awarded to the convict, has been committed.