Giving temporary relief to four aides of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, who were to be hanged for killing 22 police personnel in a landmine blast after rejection of their mercy plea by the president, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of their sentence till Wednesday.
Giving temporary relief to four aides of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, who were to be hanged for killing 22 police personnel in a landmine blast after rejection of their mercy plea by the president, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of their sentence till Wednesday.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir agreed to hear their plea for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of eight year delay in deciding the mercy plea.
Veerappan’s elder brother Gnanaprakash and his aides Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran were awarded death sentence in 2004 in connection with a landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993 in which 22 police personnel were killed.
Their mercy petition was rejected by president Pranab Mukherjee on February 13 They are presently lodged in a jail in Belgaum in Karnataka.
A TADA court in Mysore in 2001 had sentenced them to life term which was enhanced to death sentence by the apex court. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for convicts, said their execution should be stayed as another apex court bench had reserved its order on a plea for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of delay in deciding mercy plea.
He was referring to the petition filed in 2004 by Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and MN Das, who sought to commute the capital punishment to life term on the ground of delay. In April last year. the SC has reserved its verdict in the case.
@DNA
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