Pointing out that the death sentence of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru is yet to be carried out, BJP today wondered if Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab would be hanged. "They could not hang Afzal Guru, how will they hang Kasab who stands 55th in the death row?...he would not be hanged," Gadkari said in New Delhi.
The BJP President appreciated the way the court proceedings in another Mumbai attack case accused David Headley were fast tracked.
Gadkari, who was addressing a seminar on the credibility of CBI, alleged that while the Congress-led coalition at the Centre was going slow in implementing the execution awarded to convicts in terror attacks, it was putting policemen involved in eliminating terrorists "behind bars", an apparent reference to arrest of police officiers in Gujarat for alleged involvement in fake encounter killings.
In an obvious reference to senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, he charged the ruling party was also "glorifying" terrorists by visiting Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
He claimed Gujarat had the least number of fake encounters but the state government was being blackmailed and threatened by the UPA through CBI.
"States like UP and AP have far more cases of fake encounters. Why is not CBI being asked to probe that?" he said.
Alleging CBI lacked credibility, Gadkari said the agency has become an "extension" of AICC. "The UPA government has survived due to CBI...CBI has become Congress party office," he charged. In a swipe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he wondered whether he was being overlooked or "was someone else running the show...at the same time, it is the master who is responsible for the act of his servant."
Expressing similar sentiments, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said Singh has shielded himself behind his image with "teflon coating" and has kept himself away from controversies. The BJP will organise demonstrations outside CBI office across country to protest its alleged politicisation and misuse by the UPA Government.
"A journalist asked me who helped Congress the most during the cut motion vote. Then he replied himself that it was CBI which helped the government most in surviving the Opposition-sponsored motion," he said.
Taking a cue from expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, the BJP President also termed the investigation agency as "Congress Bureau of Investigation". PTI
