Joy amidst grief at Hindalga jail

The Supreme Court stay on hanging Veerappan’s aides till Feb 20 has given temporary relaxation to jail personnel as well as the convicts.

It was reported that the jail authorities were set to hang all the four convicts- Gnanprakasham, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran- on Tuesday. Sources have revealed that a team of officials were sent to Mysore to receive an order copy from the sessions judge.

Sources said that the atmosphere in the jail changed to being joyful as all the inmates expressed their happiness and greeted each other after hearing the news about the SC ordering. However, Gnanprakash the brother of Veerappan, and Simon have become dull since Saturday. Gnanprakash stopped taking food while Simon has not slept since Saturday, the sources added.

It is learnt that SC advocate Shanti Fonseka, who had arrived at Belgaum to take signature of the convicts for a petition seeking conversion of capital punishment to life time imprisonment, has returned to New Delhi.

Veerappan’s men were convicted in 2004 for killing 22 policemen and forest personnel from Tamil Nadu in a landmine blast at Palar, Karnataka in 1993.

@DNA