Jayant Sinha garlands Ramgarh lynching convicts: Union minister 'expresses regret', says law will take own course

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said on Wednesday that he “expressed regret” if “an impression has gone out” that he supports vigilantism. According to ANI reports, he stated that law will take its own course and the guilty will be punished and anyone innocent will be spared. [caption id=“attachment_4693521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Jayant Sinha garlands the eight accused in the Ramgarh lynching case. News18[/caption] On Friday, Sinha sparked a political row after he  garlanded eight men  convicted of hacking to death cattle trader Alimuddin Ansari in June last year in Hazaribagh on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.  A fast-track court has found 11 persons guilty in the case and sentenced them to life in prison in March. Eight of them secured bail from the Jharkhand high court the week before last. The minister later said it was unfortunate that irresponsible statements are being made about his action while all he did was honour the due process of law, and that innocents be spared and guilty be appropriately punished. Opposition parties on Sunday targeted the Centre over Singh's actions. They said it has brought out the “real agenda” of the ruling BJP. Sinha stoked a controversy by felicitating the convicts, with the Opposition calling it a “despicable” and “unfortunate” act. Union minister Nitin Gadkari defended the actions of Jayant Sinha and Giriraj Singh and said debating such issues was irrelevant for the unity, unification and future of the country.