NEW DELHI, Feb 22: India’s Supreme Court decided on Friday that it could not issue directives to expedite the execution of Kashmiri convict Mohammad Afzal Guru who it had found guilty of involvement in the 2001 attack on parliament, Press Trust of India said.
“It is not our duty. It is for the executive to decide how to consider the matter. We cannot pass such direction,” a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishanan said.
“This court cannot give such directions. We already passed the final order. You go to the executive,” the bench told the petitioner, a non-governmental group called Lashkar-e-Hind.
The court’s remarks came as it dismissed the NGO’s plea to direct the government against delaying the hanging of Guru, who the prosecution said was a Jaish-e-Mohammad activist. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in 2005.
Rightwing Hindu groups led by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata party have demanded Guru’s early hanging and accuse the government of appeasing Muslims by delaying the punishment.
Kashmiri activists say it is curious that the opposition was singling out Guru while several other death row convicts, including those convicted for killing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, had been living for years at the state’s mercy.
Guru’s conviction and death sentence by the trial court was upheld by both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court which had dismissed his review and curative petition, the last legal remedy available to a convict.
While two of the three other accused were acquitted, Shaukat Hussain Guru, Afzal’s associate, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for not informing the police about the conspiracy to attack parliament.
