By IANS,
New Delhi: Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru’s mercy petition is the 22nd among 28 pending with the government and these would soon be taken up for processing, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Monday.
“Twenty-eight mercy petitions are pending. Afzal Guru’s is at 22nd. I would like you to remember these two numbers: 22 and 28,” he said at a press conference as he began his second innings in office.
Chidambaram said Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta would take up the petitions in the order in which they came up and recommend whether they be accepted or rejected and inform the president accordingly.
“The home secretary will give me the paper on each case in the order in which they have come up,” he said.
Till the general elections that returned the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with a decisive mandate, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been stridently demanding that the government take a decision on whether or not to hang Guru.
Chidambaram replied in the affirmative when asked if he favoured an enquiry into the gun battle at the Batla House here last year in which two alleged operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) terror group were killed.
“I have already said the National Human Rights Commission should enquire into it. We should wait for the report,” he said.