Prez rejects mercy pleas of 2 convicts
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has rejected the mercy petition of Sikh militant Devender Pal Singh Bhullar clearing all legal hurdles for his execution even as several high profile death row convicts, including Parliament
attack accused Afzal Guru and Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts await a decision on their respective petitions. The mercy petition of another death row convict Mahendra Nath Das has also been rejected.
Home ministry sources confirmed that the mercy petition of Bhullar has been rejected by the President. The presidential decision on the mercy petition comes after a long delay as the petition was originally submitted to the President on January 14, 2003.
“The President has rejected the mercy petitions of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar of Punjab and Mahendra Nath Das of Assam following the recommendations from the Union home ministry,” sources in the ministry said. The President has also rejected the mercy petition of Das who has been found guilty of murdering one Hara Kanta Das. The Rashtrapati Bhavan declined to comment on the issue. At least 50 mercy petitions are pending before the government, sources added. Bhullar was sentenced to death by a special Tada court in Delhi in 2001 for failed assassination of the then Youth Congress president M.S. Bitta in a bomb blast caused by him and three of his accomplices near the party office in the capital in 1993 and in the process causing death of nine persons and serious injuries to 29 others. Bitta survived the attack but suffered serious injuries.
However, a petition filed by Bhullar in the Supreme Court recently highlighting the delay in a decision on the mercy petition by the President is yet to be disposed off by the apex court.
The Supreme Court had on May 23 issued notice to the Centre on a petition by Bhullar on the issue of abnormal delay taken by the President in deciding the mercy petitions of death row convicts, which he said amounts “dehumanising” them with double punishment. Taking cognisance of the writ petition of Bhullar, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad sought Centre’s reply explaining the reasons for the long delay in deciding his mercy petition submitted to the President on January 14, 2003.
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