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'Express regret', says Jayant Sinha after criticised for garlanding Jharkhand lynching convicts

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday expressed regret after he was severely criticised for felicitating eight men convicted for killing a meat trader in Jharkhand last year.

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Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday expressed regret after he was severely criticised for felicitating eight men convicted for killing a meat trader in Jharkhand last year.

"I have earlier also said that law will take its own course. Guilty will be punished and innocent will be spared. If by garlanding those men, an impression has gone out that I support such vigilantism then I express regret," Sinha told ANI.

A group of people had lynched Alimuddin Ansari, 40, in Bazaar Tand locality of Ramgarh town on June 29, 2017, on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car. Forensic tests later confirmed that the meat he was carrying was beef.

In March this year, a fast track court convicted 11 people for lynching. However, last week, Jharkhand High Court suspended the life sentence of eight persons, including a BJP functionary. 

After getting bail, the convicts walked out of the Jai Prakash Narain Central Jail and headed straight to Sinha's residence where they were welcomed with garlands.

On Tuesday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had slammed Sinha for felicitating convicts and urged citizens to support a petition asking the Harvard University to withdraw minister's alumni status.

Slamming Sinha, Rahul Gandhi asked people to support a petition created on change.org which is filed by Prateek Kanwal, a 2018 graduate from Harvard University. 

"If the sight of a highly educated MP & Central Minister, Jayant Sinha, garlanding & honouring criminals convicted of lynching an innocent man, fills you with disgust, click on the link & support this petition," Rahul said in a tweet.

In a petition, Kanwal has posted a letter written to Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow to bring his attention to the 'infamy' that one of alumni, Mr. Jayant Sinha (Harvard Business School, 1992) has gained in India and the disrepute he has brought to the university by his intemperate actions.

Earlier, defending his actions, Sinha said that the Ranchi High Court has suspended the sentence of the accused and released them on bail and he was honouring the law.

"I have full faith in our judicial system and the rule of law. Unfortunately, irresponsible statements are being made about my actions when all that I am doing is honoring the due process of law. Those that are innocent will be spared and the guilty will be appropriately punished," the minister said in a tweet.

In April too, Sinha had raised doubts over the police investigation and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Ramgarh lynching case.

Showing his angst against his son's behaviour, Yashwant Sinha had tweeted: "Earlier I was the Nalayak Baap of a Layak Beta. Now the roles are reversed. That is twitter. I do not approve of my son's action. But I know even this will lead to further abuse. You can never win."

Former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and 41 other retired bureaucrats have demanded that Union minister Jayant Sinha be sacked for felicitating eight people convicted in a lynching case, saying his action shows "there is a licence to kill minorities".

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