'Shocked' Rudy questions Tharoor's opinion on Yakub's execution, says law took its course

Commenting on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's recent remarks on the execution of 1993 Mumbai terror attacks convict Yakub Memon, a shocked Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Thursday questioned the former on whether he knew that the law had taken its course.

"I am rather shocked with the bizarre statement, and if it's true what Mr. Tharoor has tweeted, can terrorism remain sans politics? Can the process of justice be discarded by a tweet of a senior Member of Parliament? The law took its course," Rudy told the media here.

"It has been going on for more than a decade. The process has been on and process of law has completed its course. How can one have an opinion? And Mr. Tharoor is very familiar with legal provisions he has been handling many of them," he added.

"If so was his feelings, he should have intervened at the right time, but should not disrupt and create a situation for a country to debate an issue, which has been settled legally," Rudy pointed out.

Earlier in the day, Tharoor had posted, "Saddened by news that our government has hanged a human being. State-sponsored killing diminishes us all by reducing us to murderers too."

"There is no evidence that death penalty serves as a deterrent: to the contrary in fact. All it does is exact retribution: unworthy of a Govt. We must fight against terrorism w/all the means at our command. But cold-blooded execution has never prevented a terror attack anywhere," he added.

"I'm not commenting on the merits of a specific case: that's for the Supreme Court to decide. Problem is death penalty in principle and practice," he said in a series of tweets.