NEW DELHI: With the government facing all-round criticism for the way it went about informing Afzal Guru's family about his impending hanging, it now emerges that the India Post website has no details of the status of the speed post letter on the day (February 9) the Parliament House attack convict was hanged inside Tihar Jail.
India Post's website - which allows online tracking of speed post consignments -- has time-wise details of the 'item' (letter to Guru's family) for February 8 (Friday), 10 (Sunday) and 11 (Monday), but left February 9 (Saturday) out of its information network - giving an impression that the letter from Tihar authorities remained 'traceless' for over 48 hours.
Tracking the speed post letter (ED828032795IN) shows that it was booked post-midnight (12.07 am on February 8) at New Delhi GPO and delivered to Guru's wife Tabassum at her Sopore address at 11.02 am on February 11 - nearly 51 hours after Guru was hanged.
Timings given on the website show that the bag carrying the letter was dispatched to Srinagar at Palam airport at 10.29 am on February 8 and was received in Srinagar at 1.03 pm on February 10. It took the postal department another four hours to dispatch the 'letter' to Sopore. The 'item' - meant for Guru's wife - reached Sopore the next morning around 9.50 am and was finally delivered to Tabassum at 11.02 am on February 11.
The postal department not knowing about the contents of the letter and the curfew in Srinagar and Sopore post-hanging could be possible excuses but the timings mentioned in the speed post tracking system could well explain the lack of seriousness on the government's part to inform Guru's family on time.
Though there is some unease within the government over house arrest of journalist Iftikar Gilani and the way police allegedly handled his children as claimed by him, officials said there was unanimity at the top levels about informing Guru's family through speed post -- an indication that the government indeed did not want to invite trouble before the execution.
The speed post controversy, in fact, did not deter home minister Sushilkumar Shinde from defending the government's decision to hang Guru in a hush-hush manner. Shinde had on Monday admitted that the government had rushed to hang Guru and that too quietly within six days of getting his mercy plea rejected as it did not want his case to meet the same fate as that of the killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
He had suggested that disclosure of the execution plan had given the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh enough time to approach courts after their mercy petitions were rejected by the President.
Geelani was detained at his father-in-law and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's house here on the day of Guru's hanging. He was, however, later allowed to go when fellow journalists intervened and took up the matter with the police. The home ministry has, meanwhile, asked Delhi Police for an explanation over the incident which has put a question mark over the government's intention.
India Post's website - which allows online tracking of speed post consignments -- has time-wise details of the 'item' (letter to Guru's family) for February 8 (Friday), 10 (Sunday) and 11 (Monday), but left February 9 (Saturday) out of its information network - giving an impression that the letter from Tihar authorities remained 'traceless' for over 48 hours.
Tracking the speed post letter (ED828032795IN) shows that it was booked post-midnight (12.07 am on February 8) at New Delhi GPO and delivered to Guru's wife Tabassum at her Sopore address at 11.02 am on February 11 - nearly 51 hours after Guru was hanged.
Timings given on the website show that the bag carrying the letter was dispatched to Srinagar at Palam airport at 10.29 am on February 8 and was received in Srinagar at 1.03 pm on February 10. It took the postal department another four hours to dispatch the 'letter' to Sopore. The 'item' - meant for Guru's wife - reached Sopore the next morning around 9.50 am and was finally delivered to Tabassum at 11.02 am on February 11.
The postal department not knowing about the contents of the letter and the curfew in Srinagar and Sopore post-hanging could be possible excuses but the timings mentioned in the speed post tracking system could well explain the lack of seriousness on the government's part to inform Guru's family on time.
Though there is some unease within the government over house arrest of journalist Iftikar Gilani and the way police allegedly handled his children as claimed by him, officials said there was unanimity at the top levels about informing Guru's family through speed post -- an indication that the government indeed did not want to invite trouble before the execution.
The speed post controversy, in fact, did not deter home minister Sushilkumar Shinde from defending the government's decision to hang Guru in a hush-hush manner. Shinde had on Monday admitted that the government had rushed to hang Guru and that too quietly within six days of getting his mercy plea rejected as it did not want his case to meet the same fate as that of the killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab CM Beant Singh.
He had suggested that disclosure of the execution plan had given the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh enough time to approach courts after their mercy petitions were rejected by the President.
Geelani was detained at his father-in-law and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's house here on the day of Guru's hanging. He was, however, later allowed to go when fellow journalists intervened and took up the matter with the police. The home ministry has, meanwhile, asked Delhi Police for an explanation over the incident which has put a question mark over the government's intention.
Source : The Times of India, 14 Feb, 2013
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