Rajasthan
Govt Trying To Escape Responsibility By Sacking Aag In Blasts Case: Bjp | Jaipur News
Jaipur: The Rajasthan government punished additional advocate general (AAG) Rajendra Yadav late Friday night by sacking him for failing to present a convincing case in the high court that led to the acquittal of four convicts on death row for the 2008 Jaipur serial bombings.
Yadav, who was handling the case in the HC, came under fire from BJP as well. The opposition party alleged that he failed to appear in court for a long period and instead assigned the matter to a subordinate lawyer. Yadav didn’t take calls Saturday for his response. At the same meeting, CM Ashok Gehlot approved to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittals. Gehlot held the meeting with top bureaucrats, but Yadav and advocate general Mahendra Singh Singhvi weren’t present.
BJP didn’t spare Gehlot either. Former CM Vasundhara Raje and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the CM and Congress are playing “appeasement politics” and the government is trying to avoid accepting responsibility by sacking an additional advocate general for the fiasco in the high court.
The Rajasthan high court had Wednesday acquitted the four convicted men, citing a “flawed and shoddy” investigation, “insufficient” understanding of the legal process and the prosecution’s failure to corroborate material presented as evidence during the trial. The serial blasts had killed 80 and left over 170 wounded.
However, there’s no mention of action against police investigators in the press statement issued after Friday’s meeting by the government. The HC had directed the chief secretary and the DGP to ensure strict action against the “guilty” police officers.
Principal secretary (home) Anand Kumar said: “The chief secretary will deal with it. I have nothing to do with it.”
BJP held a protest in Jaipur Saturday against the Congress government for the acquittals. “When justice was to be done, he slept and now he is escaping by taking the name of the Supreme Court,” alleged Union minister Shekhawat, without naming CM Gehlot.
In a press statement, Raje said, “The Congress government did not properly follow up the Jaipur bomb blast case. This acquittal by the high court is a result of that.” She added, “After the blasts, the terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen took responsibility for it. The state government deliberately took such a serious matter lightly, otherwise the decision of the lower court (of death penalties) would have been upheld. In this case, the government’s AAG did not appear before the high court for many days. Did this happen at the behest of the state government?”
Union Jal Shakti minister Shekhawat asked what would be achieved if the services of an AAG are terminated. “The government, the administration, and the ministers all are yours… so, the accountability towards the people of Rajasthan will also be yours,” said Shekhawat. He added that the acquittal of all the accused shows that the Congress was looking for votes and not for justice.
“Eighty innocent people died in the blast, but the Gehlot government chose appeasement. The biggest proof of which is that the government’s lawyers did not even attend the hearing. And this isn’t the first time. This has been the politics of Congress,” said Shekhawat.
A lower court in December 2019 awarded death sentences to Mohammad Sarwar Azmi, Mohammad Saif, Mohammad Salman and Saifur Rahman and acquitted the fifth accused Shahbaz Hussain while giving the benefit of doubt. The state government has been facing strong criticism from all quarters after the high court’s stinking observations on the shoddy investigation which led to the acquittal of all four on Wednesday. The state government, which was caught on the wrong foot in the case, had to satisfy the public anger and the immediate casualty was the legal team leader, while action might follow on the police officials as well.
“The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and it is not just the evidence, but the way things are presented in the court also matters,” said a senior official in the law department on condition of anonymity.
Yadav, who was handling the case in the HC, came under fire from BJP as well. The opposition party alleged that he failed to appear in court for a long period and instead assigned the matter to a subordinate lawyer. Yadav didn’t take calls Saturday for his response. At the same meeting, CM Ashok Gehlot approved to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittals. Gehlot held the meeting with top bureaucrats, but Yadav and advocate general Mahendra Singh Singhvi weren’t present.
BJP didn’t spare Gehlot either. Former CM Vasundhara Raje and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the CM and Congress are playing “appeasement politics” and the government is trying to avoid accepting responsibility by sacking an additional advocate general for the fiasco in the high court.
The Rajasthan high court had Wednesday acquitted the four convicted men, citing a “flawed and shoddy” investigation, “insufficient” understanding of the legal process and the prosecution’s failure to corroborate material presented as evidence during the trial. The serial blasts had killed 80 and left over 170 wounded.
However, there’s no mention of action against police investigators in the press statement issued after Friday’s meeting by the government. The HC had directed the chief secretary and the DGP to ensure strict action against the “guilty” police officers.
Principal secretary (home) Anand Kumar said: “The chief secretary will deal with it. I have nothing to do with it.”
BJP held a protest in Jaipur Saturday against the Congress government for the acquittals. “When justice was to be done, he slept and now he is escaping by taking the name of the Supreme Court,” alleged Union minister Shekhawat, without naming CM Gehlot.
In a press statement, Raje said, “The Congress government did not properly follow up the Jaipur bomb blast case. This acquittal by the high court is a result of that.” She added, “After the blasts, the terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen took responsibility for it. The state government deliberately took such a serious matter lightly, otherwise the decision of the lower court (of death penalties) would have been upheld. In this case, the government’s AAG did not appear before the high court for many days. Did this happen at the behest of the state government?”
Union Jal Shakti minister Shekhawat asked what would be achieved if the services of an AAG are terminated. “The government, the administration, and the ministers all are yours… so, the accountability towards the people of Rajasthan will also be yours,” said Shekhawat. He added that the acquittal of all the accused shows that the Congress was looking for votes and not for justice.
“Eighty innocent people died in the blast, but the Gehlot government chose appeasement. The biggest proof of which is that the government’s lawyers did not even attend the hearing. And this isn’t the first time. This has been the politics of Congress,” said Shekhawat.
A lower court in December 2019 awarded death sentences to Mohammad Sarwar Azmi, Mohammad Saif, Mohammad Salman and Saifur Rahman and acquitted the fifth accused Shahbaz Hussain while giving the benefit of doubt. The state government has been facing strong criticism from all quarters after the high court’s stinking observations on the shoddy investigation which led to the acquittal of all four on Wednesday. The state government, which was caught on the wrong foot in the case, had to satisfy the public anger and the immediate casualty was the legal team leader, while action might follow on the police officials as well.
“The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and it is not just the evidence, but the way things are presented in the court also matters,” said a senior official in the law department on condition of anonymity.
