Hyderabad, Dec. 12: Legal experts feel that any more delay in hanging Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru or changing his death penalty to life term would send out wrong signals to the world.
The Supreme Court had pronounced death sentence on Afzal. However, the decision to execute him has been pending for three years because of a major political row. Afzal has been lodged in Tihar jail since September, 2005, after the SC dismissed petitions seeking review of its judgment.
The execution was scheduled for October 20, 2006, but his family filed a clemency plea with then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and he referred it to Union home ministry. The home ministry sought the opinion of Delhi government as the crime occurred there. But the Sheila Dikshit government is yet to take a decision. "Any more delay would cause problems," said Mr Madabhushi Sridhar, a professor at Nalsar.
"If the terrorists who attacked Mumbai demanded the release of Afzal, what would the government have done? These issues cannot be kept pending for a long time." "This case is not fit for clemency," said the former advocate-general, Mr S. Ramachandra Rao. "Terrorists who attack the country may feel that nothing will happen to them even if they are caught."
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