Afzal Guru's extent of involvement in Parliament attack was doubtful: P Chidambaram
Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said that it is possible that the "Afzal Guru case may not have been correctly decided". He also said that the levelling charges of sedition against the JNU students was "outrageous".
New Delhi, February 25, 2016 | Posted by Sangeeta Ojha | UPDATED 11:47 IST
Calling the sedition charge against the students who held a pro-Afzal Guru meeting at the Jawaharlal Nehru university campus outrageous, former home minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has raised serious doubts over the degree of involvement of the hanged terrorist in the 2001 Parliament attacks.
In an interview to The Economic Times, Chidambaram said, "I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided."
Amid raising controversy over sedition charges against three arrested students, Chidambaram said the opinion that Afzal Guru's case was wrongly decided by the court is not anti-national so it is outrageous to slap sedition charges against the students.
Afzal Guru was convicted by the Supreme Court of India in the 2001 Parliament attack that killed six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel and all 5 Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists. He was hanged on February 9, 2013 during the UPA-2 government after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition.
Speaking on the issue, he said it was not possible for him to raise doubts over the court's judgement while being in the government. He was the finance minister at the time when Afzal Guru was hanged.