Death row convict M.N. Das from Assam will escape the noose as the Union home ministry has decided not to seek a second review of the Supreme Court decision to commute his death sentence in May this year. Das had pleaded before the Supreme Court that he had already spent about 14 years in jail during the disposal of his petition for presidential clemency. Das’s mercy petition had been rejected by President Pratibha Patel in 2011.
Das will now serve life imprisonment as the Union law ministry has told the MHA that it cannot go for a second review in the case. After the SC commuted Das’s death sentence in May this year, the MHA had written to the law ministry asking whether it can be reviewed once again. What also appears to have worked in Das’s favour is former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s 2005 note favouring commutation of his death penalty to life term. The apex court had observed that Dr Kalam’s note had not been referred to during the final rejection of his mercy petition. The MHA sources maintained that all notes had been placed before Ms Patel who had gone ahead to award him capital punishment.
While the MHA will not seek a second review in Das’s case, sources said it has become an uphill task for the home ministry as more and more death row convicts have challenged the President’s rejection of their mercy pleas in the apex court citing delay. While there is no time frame for the President to decide on a mercy plea, at least five cases are pending in the court where the death row convicts have sought a stay on their execution after the President has rejected their mercy petitions.
“We are consulting the law ministry in each case. We are also trying to address the issue of death row convicts challenging the President’s decision,” an official said.
M.N. Das was convicted in two murder cases in Assam in 1997. In 1990, he killed a man in Guwahati and surrendered. Six years later, he beheaded Harakanta Das at Fancy Bazaar in Guwahati while he was out on bail and surrendered with the victim’s head. Das was sentenced to death in 1997 and his conviction and sentence was subsequently upheld by the Guwahati high court in 1998 and the Supreme Court in 1999. The same year he filed a mercy plea before the President which remained pending for eleven years before it was rejected in 2011.