Rahul Gandhi asks people to sign petition over Jayant Sinha's felicitation of convicts

In a tweet, Rahul said: "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."

Jayant garlanded the convicts after they were released on bail on Thursday, defended himself on Saturday in a series of tweets claiming that "he was honouring the due process of law".

He said he was “pleased” that the high court will now hear the matter as he had his "misgivings about the fast-track court judgment sentencing each accused to life imprisonment".

Jayant, who represents the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency, said he rejects “any type of vigilantism” and “condemn all acts of violence."

A mob of cow vigilantes had on June 27 last year hacked cattle trader Alimuddin Ansari to death in Ramgarh area of Hazaribagh district.

All accused went to the Jharkhand High Court from where eight of them got bail on June 29, exactly a year after the incident.

The life sentences handed to the eight men, including a BJP functionary, were suspended by the Jharkhand High Court last week.

After they were released from the jail, the men went straight to the residence of Sinha, where the minister garlanded them and the video went viral evoking bitter criticism.

Jayant's father and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha openly disapproved Jayant's action in a tweet on Saturday.

Sinha took to Twitter to say, "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."