Jaising tweeted that while she fully understands the pain of Asha Devi, she urges her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini as she did not want the death penalty for her. Her post has garnered a lot of flak on social media with users asking her to remain silent.
Jaising’s tweet was uploaded in response to an interview with Asha Devi where she was seen criticising prominent persons for politicising the death of her daughter.
For those unaware, Nalini was arrested and convicted for her role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's husband in 1991.
Now social media users are boiling over with anger at the senior lawyer's insensitive comment, questioning if she would feel the same if her daughter had been the victim.
Nirbhaya, or the fearless, is the name given to the Delhi gang-rape victim. The incident happened on the night of 16 December 2012 in South Delhi's Munirka when the victim was returning from a movie with a male friend. The crime, involving six men, triggered an outcry across India, with people coming out onto the streets, demanding safety and security for women.
One of the key accused, Ram Singh committed suicide while in custody. Another was a juvenile at the time of the crime and was sent to a reformatory for three years. The remaining four - Akshay, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh were recently sentenced to death by a Delhi court. However, the execution, slated for 22 January, had to be postponed.
The convicts will now face the gallows on 1 February at 6 a.m. local time. The new date, necessitated due to two of the four convicts sending mercy pleas to the president of India, was announced on Friday in a fresh death warrant.
A Delhi sessions court gave the fresh date for the execution hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the four surviving convicts to be hanged in the case. The president had already rejected another convict's, Vinay Kumar, mercy plea in December.