New Delhi: Union minister Smriti Irani on Friday blamed the AAP government in Delhi over the "delay" in the hanging of the Nirbhaya case convicts.
Addressing a press conference, the BJP leader also accused the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation of depriving the victim's mother of justice.
"Why was the prisons department, which comes under AAP government, sleeping after the dismissal of review petition in July 2018? Why did the government give Rs 10,000 and a sewing kit to the juvenile rapist when he was released?" she posed.
The BJP-led NDA government at Centre and the AAP government in Delhi have been passing the buck to each other over the issue of delayed hanging of convicts. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia hit back at the BJP for holding the AAP government responsible, saying, "Give us Delhi Police and law-and-order responsibility for two days and we will hang Nirbhaya convicts."
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".
"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," he said.
"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," Sisodia said.
The four rapists were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.
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 January 22 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.
As authorities and the victim's mother contended that the four men were "frustrating" and "intentionally" delaying the legal process by filing curative and mercy pleas in stages to postpone their execution, the Delhi government recommended rejecting Mukesh Kumar Singh's mercy plea to the President and forwarded it to the Lieutenant Governor.
Sisodia told reporters that the action was taken at "lightning speed"
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