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President Pranab Mukherjee may turn down 5 more mercy pleas

[email protected] (TNN)
February 15, 2013

President-rejects

New Delhi, Feb 15: The Union home ministry is learnt to have recommended rejection of mercy petitions in five more cases as it seeks to speedily dispose of all the cases of death row convicts pending with it.

Seeking to have a swift closure on the cases of those who have filed mercy pleas against capital punishment awarded to them, the ministry has sent all the pending files to President Pranab Mukherjee for a final call.

Sources said that seven cases involving the fate of nine people have been sent to the President, with the ministry recommending rejection of the mercy pleas in five cases. It has and left the two remaining ones open for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment with the rider that the life term means jail for the entire life of the convict and not just 20 years or 14 years in prison.

The President had sent the files to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on October 30 for his review and opinion. Shinde sent the files back within 100 days in a major shift from the pattern where decisions on mercy petitions were indefinitely delayed with files shuttling between the home ministry and the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Though the case-wise recommendations for convicts were not known as both the home ministry and Rashtrapati Bhavan continue to remain tightlipped on mercy petition files, the seven cases relate to multiple murders, including one in which a rape convict out on bail killed five members of the victim's family.

While two files were sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 9 (the day Parliament House attack case convict Afzal Guru was hanged), the remaining five files were dispatched last month.

The mercy files, which have been pending for years while moving to and fro between Rashtrapati Bhavan and the home ministry, saw unprecedented movement of late, resulting in two quick hangings (Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru) within less than three months. Mukherjee had rejected the mercy plea of Kasab on November 5, and Guru on February 3.

The files, which are now with President Mukherjee, include the longest pending case of Gurmeet Singh of Uttar Pradesh, who was convicted for killing 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 their brother's family and Dharampal from Haryana, who had murdered five members of the family of a girl he had raped in 1993. He had murdered the family while on bail in the rape case.

The other cases 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. Sunder Singh from Uttarakhand is convicted for rape and murder on June 30, 1989, Jafar Ali from Uttar Pradesh who was convicted for killing wife and five daughter in 2002 and Praveen Kumar of Karnataka, convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994.

Mukherjee has so far disposed of mercy petitions of eight death row convicts in five cases.

The President has also rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna Ningappa Natikar (Karnataka: convicted for killing wife and daughter) and mercy petitions of slain forest 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.

Strained mercy:

1,455 persons awarded death penalty in India from 2001 to 2011

Sentences for 4,321 persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment during the same period.

Highest number of death penalty was imposed in Uttar Pradesh (370) followed by Bihar (132), Maharashtra (125), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (95 each), Madhya Pradesh (87), Jharkhand (81), West Bengal (79), Delhi (71), Gujarat (57), Rajasthan (38), Kerala (34), Odisha (33), Haryana (31), Assam (21), Jammu & Kashmir (20), Punjab (19), Chhattisgarh (18), Uttarakhand (16), Andhra Pradesh (8), Meghalaya (6), Chandigarh and Daman & Diu (4 each), Manipur and Himachal Pradesh (3 each), Tripura and Pondicherry (2 each) and Goa (1)

No death penalty imposed in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim and Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep\

Sentences of 4,321 persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment in the country during 2001-11

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: India's COVID-19 tally breached the 9 lakh mark as 28,498 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

As per the Health Ministry, there are a total of 9,06,752 coronavirus cases in the country of which 3,11,565 patients are active cases.

5,71,459 patients have been cured/discharged while one patient has been migrated, the Ministry informed further.

553 more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, taking the number of patients succumbing to the virus to 23,727.

The Centre further informed that India's recovery rate from COVID-19 stands at 63.02 per cent while the recoveries and deaths ratio stood at 96.01 per cent and 3.99 per cent respectively.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the infection -- has a total of 2,60,924 COVID-19 cases and 10,482 fatalities. While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,42,798 cases and 2,032 deaths due to COVID-19.

Delhi has reported a total of 1,13,740 cases and 3,411 deaths due to COVID-19.

As per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 1,20,92,503 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 13, of these 2,86,247 samples were tested on Monday.

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News Network
March 25,2020

New Delhi, Mar 25: The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 562, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.
This includes 512 active cases, while 40 infected people have already been cured or discharged.
The Union Health Ministry said that total deaths due to the disease now stand at 9, as the second death reported in Delhi is COVID-19 negative. One patient has also migrated due to the infection.
The Central government has taken several steps to contain the rapid spread of the virus including the screening 15,24,266 passengers at the airports.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.
In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Modi said that it is vital to break the chain of the disease and experts have said that at least 21 days are needed for it.
The Prime Minister, who had also addressed the nation last week, said the lockdown has drawn a "Lakshman Rekha" in every home and people should stay indoors for their own protection and for that of their families. 

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Kochi, Jul 30: The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to grant the extension for the stay of a 74-year-old US citizen, Johnny Paul Pierce, who had earlier said that he felt safer to remain in India than in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-judge bench of Justice CS Dias, which considered the writ petition, observed that the grant or extension of visa to foreign nationals fall exclusively within the domain of the Government of India (GoI) and that judicial review in such matters is minimal.

The power of the GoI to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited, the bench said.

"In view of the categoric declaration of law by the Supreme Court, the plea of the petitioner to permit him to stay back in India cannot be accepted, as it falls within the purview of the guidelines and the discretion of the Government of India," the order said.

"The petitioner cannot be heard that the guidelines/policies/regulations formulated by the Government of India, that an American national though has been granted a visa having validity of five years has to leave India within 180 days, is irrational or unreasonable," it added.

The High Court, which was hearing a plea to permit the US citizen to stay in India for a further period of six months, said that the petitioner does not have a case that there is an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The petitioner was well aware of the visa conditions when he arrived in India, and it is too late in the day for him to raise a grievance on the visa conditions," the bench said noting that the petitioner's love for India was heartening.

The High Court also directed the Foreigners Registration Officer to consider the petitioner's representation within a period of two weeks in accordance with the applicable guidelines and policies.

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