A visibly disturbed mother of the 2012 gangrape victim, on Friday, refuted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that his government never delayed any work related to the Nirbhaya case.

Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi, termed it “absolutely wrong” to claim that the Delhi government has worked on time to bring the culprits to justice.

She stated that it has been seven years since the gruesome incident happened. Two-and-half years have gone by since the Supreme Court gave its verdict and 18 months have passed since the review petition was rejected, she added while asserting that the family has done what the jail and the government should have done.

Hours before, Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal had said: “All the work that was under the Delhi government was completed by us within hours. We never delayed any work related to this case. Delhi government hardly has any role in it. We want convicts to be hanged at the earliest.”

As the Delhi High Court was informed about the delay in the execution of Nirbhaya’s rapists, Nirbhaya’s mother earlier in the day broke down saying that the Government is not able to see the family’s tears.

“My family has been struggling since seven years and the government is not able to understand our problems,” she said

“They (convicts) are being given a thousand options, but we have no rights,” Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said as she broke into tears.

She further appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying: “You came to power in 2014 promising safety for women, so please hang them on January 22.”

Asha Devi also slammed the BJP and AAP as the two parties have blamed each over the delay in the execution of the four convicts in the case.

“Till now, I never talked about politics, but now I want to say that those people who held protests on streets in 2012, today the same people are only playing with my daughter’s death for political gains,” she told news agency ANI.

“The rapists are the one to have committed a crime, but we are suffering. The government is listening to their pleas, not ours,” she added.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had on Thursday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of delaying the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

He claimed that the hanging of convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case has been delayed because of Delhi government’s “negligence” in the matter.

“The hanging of the convicts in 2012 Delhi gangrape case is now delayed because of Delhi government’s negligence. AAP is responsible for the delay in justice. Why did the Delhi government not give notice to the convicts for filing mercy plea in the last 2.5 years?” Javadekar said at a press conference.

“Now the hanging cannot happens on January 22. If they had been given notice as per the rule soon after the death sentence was announced in 2017, the accused would have been hanged by now. AAP government is responsible for the delay in justice,” the Union Minister was further quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and his party colleague Sanjay Singh hit back saying that the Union Minister was lying.

“Javadekar ji, police is under you (centre), responsibility of law and order is under you, home ministry is under you, Tihar DG and administration is under you and you are blaming us. Please don’t stoop so low on a sensitive issue,” Sisodia said.

The Delhi government following reports from Tihar jail authorities had told the High Court on Wednesday that the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case cannot take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.

The four convicts — Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Thakur Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — were to be hanged at 7 am on January 22.

The government’s statement came as Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts in the case, on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the death warrant issued against him.

As per law, there should be a 14-day gap between the rejection of a death-row convict’s mercy petition and his execution.

Meanwhile, President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday rejected the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

This came just hours after the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday night forwarded the mercy petition of the convict to Rashtrapati Bhavan urging the President to reject the plea.

Earlier, the Delhi government had rejected the mercy plea of the convict and had recommended the Centre to reject the petition as well.

Four of the convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2017, which also dismissed their review petitions.