Civil rights lawyers want death penalty abolished

NEW DELHI: On the day terrorist Afzal Guru was executed, a group of civil rights advocates slammed the move, seeking abolition of death penalty. At a seminar held at Indian Law Institute on "Agenda for Abolition of Capital Punishment", lawyers also questioned the nature of evidence in Guru's case.
Advocate Vrinda Grover condemned the denial of a last meeting with his family to Guru."Is that how inhuman we are?" she wondered, arguing that under the law the family, petitioner and prisoner have to be informed about the dismissal of a clemency plea. The participants criticized the "secrecy" and the "slinking manner" in which the execution was carried out, saying the timing showed there were other considerations.
"Guru was sentenced in 2005 and the execution happens in 2013. I am not sure whether he was hanged for his role in the attacks," remarked advocate Yug Mohit Chaudhary, who claimed Guru never received a fair trial and narrated one instance to make his point.
"During the trial, Afzal Guru had at one instance contradicted his own lawyer, when the lawyer tried to defend him against the statement of his landlord. The landlord, who deposed as a witness, claimed it was Guru who had referred Mohammed, one of the gunmen in the Parliament attack, to rent out a flat to him. At this point, the lawyer denied this, whereas Guru stood up in court and admitted to have done it. This was followed by Guru's side of the story in which he admitted to have helped the gunmen get a flat and an ambassador."
However, Chaudhary claimed, that in the very next sentence Guru clarified why he helped these men and "told the court that he had done this on the order of security agencies who had asked him to help Mohammed. Guru was a surrendered militant before he was charged in the Parliament attack."
The lawyer wondered why Guru would implicate himself and said he was only stating the truth that led him to make such a confession in court. the fairness of the trial.
"What democracy are we talking about where the leaders of the government come out and say that the secrecy was maintained so that no one would be able to move the courts further," one of the lawyers said referring to the statements made after Kasab's execution in November last year.