Government on Friday said the execution of death sentence of Afzal Guru,convicted in the Parliament attack case,was being delayed as "you cannot pick,choose and hang" and there were many mercy petitions pending for long. "You cannot pick,choose and hang. Nowhere does it happen in the world including Pakistan," Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily told a 'meet the press' programme organised by Press Association in New Delhi. Guru has been sentenced to death but he has not been hanged as his mercy petition is still pending with the President. Noting that no country which has rule of law can have such a hanging carried out "at the discretion of any political party",Moily said there was need for evolving a mechanism for quick disposal of mercy petitions. He said 28 mercy petitions were pending for disposal for long. Why is Vijayan hesitant to face court Centre said on Friday that politics should not be brought into the issue of giving permission to CBI to prosecute Kerala CPI(M) Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in a graft case and wondered why the Marxist leader was hesitant to face the court if he was innocent. Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters that he does not want to get into any political debate on the issue in which the CPI(M) had criticised Kerala Governor R S Gavai for giving sanction to CBI to prosecute Vijayan. "In a corruption case,politics should not be brought. If he has faith in judiciary,why should he worry? If a particular person is innocent,why is he hesitant to face the judiciary?" he asked. Moily said neither the government nor politics should interfere in the criminal justice system. Gavai has recently given sanction to CBI to prosecute Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin graft case. The case pertained to alleged corruption and financial irregularities amounting to USD 60 million (over Rs 290 crore as of now) while awarding contracts for three power projects in Kerala in 1997 during Vijayan's tenure as the state power minister. SNC-Lavalin is a Canadian engineering company based in Montreal. The CBI in its charge sheet had alleged that SNC-Lavalin was wrongfully given contracts for renovation of the power projects.
