New Delhi, Apr 5: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected mercy petitions of three mass murderers and a rapist-killer confirming death sentences awarded to the convicts.
Uttar Pradesh's Gurmeet Singh, convicted of killing 13 members of a family, and Suresh and Ramji who were found guilty of killing five relatives over a property dispute, are among those whose clemency has been rejected.
Unlike his predecessor Pratibha Patil who saved four rapist-killers from the gallows, President Mukherjee took a more hard-nosed view in rejecting the mercy petition of Haryana rapist-murderer Dharampal who now faces a death sentence.
These three are among the five cases in which Mukherjee has rejected clemency pleas. Mukherjee has dismissed five mercy pleas while commuting death sentence to life term for two others.
According to information provided by the home ministry in response to an RTI application filed by Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), Gurmeet Singh and Suresh and Ramji's clemency pleas were rejected with the ministry's judicial division's response dated March 28, 2013.
'Dharampal to be hanged in Ambala'
Meanwhile, Haryana jail authorities confirmed on Thursday that the mercy petition of Dharampal, a rape convict who murdered five members of the victim's family while out on parole in 1993, had been rejected by the President. His plea has been pending for 14 years. Haryana DGP (Prisons) Sharad Kumar said the hanging will be carried out in Ambala Jail.
Dharampal was charged with raping a girl in Sonepat in 1991 and was given a 10-year jail sentence in 1993. Shortly after being granted parole, he bludgeoned to death the girl's parents, a sister and two brothers while they were sleeping in their home.
Dharampal and his brother Nirmal were awarded death penalty for the murders in 1997. The sentence was upheld by the High Court a year later. However, in 1999, Supreme Court commuted Nirmal's death sentence to life imprisonment.
The longest pending case is that of Gurmeet Singh who killed 13 members of a family on August 17, 1986. The others cases are of Suresh and Ramji, also from UP, who were convicted for killing five members of brother's family.
Among the other cases that have been disposed off by the President are of Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA, and her husband Sanjeev, who drugged and killed eight of her family in Hisar in 2001 including her parents.
Other cases relate to Sunder Singh from Uttarakhand is convicted for murder of five members of his brother's family on June 30, 1989, Jafar Ali from Uttar Pradesh who was convicted for killing wife and five daughters in 2002 and Praveen Kumar of Karnataka, convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994.
The President had earlier disposed off 8 death row convicts in 5 cases. He had rejected the mercy plea of 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist Ajmal Kasab on November 5, 2012 and of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on February 3, 2013.
The President had also rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna Ningappa Natikar (Karnataka: convicted for killing wife and daughter) and mercy petitions of slain brigand Veerappan's associates Gnanaprakash, Simon, 'Meesai' Madaian and Pilavendran, who were sentenced to death for killing 22 police personnel in 1993.
However, the mercy petition of Atbir (Delhi), who was convicted for murder of his step-mother, step-sister and step-brother over property, was commuted to life imprisonment by the President.
Comments
Add new comment