New Delhi, January 21: Alia Bhatt’s mother and actress Soni Razdan sparked a controversy after questioning the death penalty of Afzal Guru. Afzal was convicted for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. He was hanged on February 9, 2013.
In a letter to his lawyer, Afzal had accused Jammu and Kashmir police officer DSP Davinder Singh of being linked to the conspiracy to attack the Indian Parliament. Davinder Singh was arrested in the company of militants earlier this month.
Soni tweeted in Afzal’s defense, calling him an scapegoat. She wrote, “This is a travesty of justice. Who is going to bring back a man from the dead if he is innocent. This is why the death penalty is not to be used lightly. And this is why there also needs to be a solid enquiry into why Afzal Guru was made the scapegoat.”
Soni’s statement led to an outrage. She later tweeted clarifying her statement. She wrote, “No one is saying he is innocent. But if he was tortured and then ordered by his torturer to do what he did isn’t that what needed to be fully investigated ? Why did no one take his allegations about Devinder Singh seriously. That’s the travesty.”
In the letter, Afzal had accused Davinder of torturing him. He wrote that Davinder introduced him to Mohammed, one of the terrorists involved in the attack, and tasked him with the “small job” of ferrying Mohammed to Delhi and getting him a rented accommodation in the national capital.
