KL Report
SRINAGAR
Day after Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that Clemency to DS Bhular was ‘under consideration’ after Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal had presented a memorandum to PM seeking clemency for him (Bhuller) RTI activists in the valley have accused Union Government of resorting to ‘double standards’ vis a vis Kashmiris. They said that the union Home Ministry gave “incorrect, ambiguous and contradictory” information to the RTI queries in Afzal Guru’s case, ‘and even refused to share certain information, thus violating the RTI Act’. The activists have now approached the appellate authority with a complaint of concealing the information under RTI Act by home ministry.
“It is ironic that the (MOH) gave two contradictory replies to our RTI queries pre and post Guru Execution”, valley based RTI activist Dr. M. Afzal told KNS on Friday.
According to the information provided by the Judicial Secretary (Judicial) & CPIO, Ministry of Home Affairs on 22nd of September 2011 to RTI application filed by M. Afzal, the Parliament attack Convict Afzal Guru was on serial 23 in the list of person waiting for the execution.
“List of the cases has been prepared w.e.f October 2009 on the basis of the date of the judgment of the trial court for submission/ resubmission of cases to the president’s secretariat. In this list, queries case of Mohd. Afzal Guru is on 23rd position. “Home Ministry mentions in its reply to point (IV) at serial 5, a copy of which lies with KNS.
However, interestingly the Ministry in the fresh RTI post Guru Execution states that there wasn’t any serial number existing at all.
“There is no serial number system. Every case is considered independently”, Rakesh Jingan Under secretary (J-II) in the MOH says in his reply to fresh RTI application filed by Afzal, seeking the information regarding the serial no. of Guru in the death row.
The RTI replies by the same ministry also contradict in its replies regarding the grant of clemency by different Presidents.
“In the earlier RTI application in 2011, the ministry had mentioned that no clemency was granted by former President Pratibah Devi Singh Patil, however the recent news reports published in dailies quoting RTI application filed by S C Agerwal, Patil granted clemency to 34 convicts during her five year term as president.” Afzal told KNS.
He also said that the Home Ministry in a very ‘vague’ reply refused to share the details of Afzal Guru’s wife Tabsum Guru’s application saying, “The matter was personal, and hence the contents can’t be shared under rules.”
While claiming that the Home Ministry “misled” the people by saying that the Tihar Jail letter to Afzal Guru’s family was cross checked with the JK DGP, the RTI activist said, that the ministry even’ dodged’ them on this issue as well.
“The execution was carried out b the government of NCT of Delhi. You may directly obtain this information from them”, Afzal quoted MHA having mentioned in its reply to RTI, filed by him.
