By IANS,
Chandigarh : Former union home minister Shivraj Patil Wednesday said here that he “did not think” Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had allegedly hinted that he had directed her to deliberately delay the mercy petition file of Afzal Guru.
“I do not think that she had said so,” said Patil while talking to reporters here on the sidelines of an event.
Patil, who is now the administrator of Chandigarh and governor of Punjab, refused to further comment on the issue.
“You can talk to me regarding this ongoing event but I will not comment on any of this,” Patil said.
Dikshit in an interview to a TV channel June 6 had hinted that Patil, then the union home minister, had asked her government to delay the file related to Afzal Guru’s mercy petition.
Guru was convicted of conspiring in a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and was awarded capital punishment for this in 2004. After the Supreme Court upheld his punishment, he filed a mercy petition to the president.