Dikshit Says No Letter on Guru’s Petition Pending with Delhi Govt

Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has refused to have received any letter from Union Home Ministry and asked what it is doing about the mercy petition of Afzal Guru, a death row convict of the Parliament attack, said media reports.

“I have not received any letter (from Home Ministry). Maybe the Home Department (of the Delhi government received it),” the chief minister, who is also in-charge of Home Department, was quoted as saying.

Dikshit made the statement in response to a question asked by reporters that the Union Home Ministry had sent a reminder to her government and asked it to give its comments on Guru’s mercy petition.

Guru is imprisoned in Delhi’s Tihar jail for his role in the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament.

In April last year, the Centre asked for its views on Guru’s petition and at that point of time Dikshit said that she would study the matter after the Lok Sabha elections.

A year after the elections, she was yet to decide on the matter.

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily had in June 2009 had told a TV channel that Guru’s mercy petition was 27th on the list of death convicts who have appealed for their punishment to be commuted.

He had said that his petition would be dealt with ‘according to the system’.

(Based on internet reports)