NEW DELHI: Asha Devi, the mother of the 2012 gangrape victim, slammed senior lawyer Indira Jaising following her request to the former to pardon the men on death row who were convicted for their involvement in the case.
Devi was reacting to a tweet by the senior advocate asking her to forgive the four convicts and stop their execution by following the example Congress party chief, Sonia Gandhi, who had forgiven her husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin Nalini Murugan.
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“Who is Indira Jaisingh to question me? How dare she even put forward this suggestion?” Devi said. “I met her many times over the years in SC, not even once has she asked for my well being and today she is speaking for the convicts. Such people earn their livelihood by supporting rapists,” she added.
“While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn’t not want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against death penalty,” Jaising had tweeted on Friday.
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Nirbhaya’s father, as well, said that the senior lawyer should be “ashamed” and said his family isn’t as “large-hearted” as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. He also demanded an apology from Jaising. Delhi BJP vice president Shazia Ilmi has strongly opposed the statement of the former state government Advocate.
Ilmi said that expeditious rejection of the mercy petition by the President Kovind has raised hope of justice among women of the country but the way in which attempts are being made to save the convicts by people close to Kejriwal clearly shows that the government is trying to delay justice in regard to the case.