India News | Ashok Gehlot Says Perpetrators of Jaipur Blasts Will Be Punished

Jaipur, May 25 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said that the government will make all efforts to get punishment to the culprits in the Jaipur serial blasts case and to this end it has appointed the Attorney General of the Government of India as its counsel in the Supreme Court.

"It will be the effort of the government to ensure that the harshest punishment is meted out in such cases. That is why we have appointed the Attorney General there (in the Supreme Court) as a lawyer," Gehlot told reporters.

Also Read | Tripura Government Warns To Take Action if Employees Are Not Punctual.

"The matter has been taken up in the Supreme Court. Now I understand that the hearing is starting, there will definitely be decisions on it, because on what basis the High Court acquitted the accused … directly acquitted," he said.

Rajasthan High Court had on March 29 acquitted Mohammad Sarwar Azmi, Mohammad Saif, Mohammad Salman, and Saifur Rahman. The four were sentenced to death by a special court in 2019 in the Jaipur serial blasts case.

Also Read | Odisha Government To Provide Free Wi-Fi Facility in All State-Run Universities, Colleges Soon To Facilitate E-Learning.

The high court reversed the trial court verdict and also pulled up the probe agency for its "poor" investigation.

At least 71 people were killed and over 180 were injured in eight serial blasts in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, on 13 May 2008.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has been consistently attacking the Congress government over the issue.

Gehlot said the BJP has no other issue to rake up. "But, I have full hope that gradually they will get answers from the public."

Reacting to the conviction of four accused and seven years jail to them in the Alwar's Rakbar Khan mob lynching case on Thursday, Gehlot said, "We will get the decision reviewed. We will see what is written in the decision and later we will see what can be done."

Gehlot said both these incidents happened during the tenure of the previous BJP government and the verdicts in the two cases came only when Congress came to power in the state.

"Our government is concerned about getting people justice," he said.

On BJP's charge of corruption against his government, Gehlot said the party is making such remarks in nervousness, but the Congress will limit its election campaign to its five-year rule and work.

"These are all nervous people. Their condition has become very bad. The allegations of 40 per cent (corruption) about the (former BJP) Chief Minister in Karnataka are hounding them," he said.

"Ask them 'don't you have anything else?' What did you do in Rajasthan for four and half years. At least you could have created an issue against us. There is no issue at all. That's why now they talk like this. We will go to polls on the issue of development and good governance and unemployment, and how to control inflation," the CM said.

He accused the BJP of misleading people with lies, which, he said, will not work for its anymore.

"Whether Modi ji comes ... Amit Shah ji comes. A lot of money will be spent, cash will be distributed. What will these people not do? But I think the people of Rajasthan have decided the mood," he said.

Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the state later this year.

Gehlot also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should make an announcement about the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) in his public meeting in Ajmer on May 31.

Modi had in a rally in Ajmer earlier announced to make ERCP a project of national importance.

In other developments on Thursday, Gehlot inaugurated a newly constructed "state-of-the-art" bus terminal at Jaipur Central Bus Stand in Sindhi Camp in the evening.

On the occasion, he said after the paper leak case, his government came up with a law and sent the culprits to jail, which has not been done by any other state.

"Now since the opposition has no issue, so they have started talking about the paper leak and started demanding compensation for the candidates.. Give compensation to the 26 lakh people who took the exam. The papers got leaked, so they should get compensation?" he said. "Has anyone made such a demand in the history of the world?"

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)