Mohammad Afzal’s wife Tabasum and son Ghalib outside Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Oct. 5: Seven-year-old Ghalib nearly killed himself the day he learnt that his father had been sentenced to hang.

He had tied a rope to a ceiling fan to feel the “pain” of hanging, his mother Tabasum told President A.P.J Abdul Kalam when she met him today to plead for mercy for her husband Mohammad Afzal.

The family’s 30-minute meeting yielded no promises of clemency.

“I came into the room just in time to stop him,” Tabasum, who met Kalam along with mother-in-law Ayesha Begum, Ghalib and lawyers N.D. Pancholi and Nandita Haksar, said.

Ghalib’s classmates, she added, have been taunting him about his father’s hanging, which was scheduled for October 20 but is likely to be postponed while the President and the government make up their minds on a pardon.

The President, known to be fond of children, was moved, Pancholi said, adding that he spoke to Ghalib for a few more minutes.

The conversation began with Tabasum, who pleaded with Kalam to read the entire case verdict before deciding on her mercy plea. “I said the trial was one-sided and not fair, since he did not have a lawyer at the trial stage where the charges were framed initially. I pleaded for insaaf (justice),” she said.

Ayesha said she did not have much to say beyond her hope that Kalam would sympathise with a “mother who knows her son is about to die but can do nothing about it”.

Ghalib appeared more comfortable with English than the rest of the family and told the President with a flourish: “I am in 1st class.”

Kalam told the family he would read the petition and the case before making his decision.

The lack of a commitment to Afzal’s family contrasted sharply with a meeting the couple convicted for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi had with Sonia — along with their daughter. Sonia sought clemency for Nalini, the mother.