New Delhi: After her government was
reprimanded by Delhi High Court for granting parole to Jessica
Lal murder convict Manu Sharma, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit
on Saturday defended the decision, saying nothing "illegal or
unlawful" was done in extending the benefit to the prisoner.
"Whatever has happened is normal and I do not want to say
anything more on this. We have not done anything that is
illegal or unlawful," she said. Dikshit had signed on the
file paving the way for granting parole to Sharma.
The Delhi High Court had earlier this week come down hard
on the city government for giving preferential treatment to
Sharma in granting parole while neglecting such pleas of
"poor" people languishing in jail for years.
In a further embarrassment to the Government, Delhi
Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal yesterday said that police
department had not given recommendation to the government for
granting parole to Sharma.
However, Delhi Government officials said the report of
the police was "not clear" and they are equally to be blamed.
Asked about High Court's criticism of the decision,
Dikshit justified her position, saying "whatever files I
receive, they come through proper channels."
The High Court had directed the government to take an
unbiased approach while dealing with parole pleas and asked it
to decide all the 98 pending parole applications within a
month.
Sharma was released from jail on parole on September 22
but he returned to Tihar jail on November 10 before expiry of
his two-month parole following mounting criticism that he
violated norms under which he was granted the benefit by the
Delhi Government.
Dikshit said Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna also did not
object to the recommendation and cleared the file paving way
for Sharma's parole.
"The Lt Governor also signed it. He has not returned it,"
the Chief Minister said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 28, 2009, 20:51