New Delhi: After seven years, the go-ahead
has been given for execution of two murder convicts that could
start the process of clearing the long list of death row
convicts, including Afzal Guru and Rajiv Gandhi assasination
convicts, awaiting punishment.
President Pratibha Patil 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 Rashtrapati Bhavan declined to comment.
Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August
25, 2001, for plotting terror attacks on Punjab SSP Sumedh
Singh Saini in 1991 and the then Youth Congress president M S
Bitta in 1993 leading to several deaths in Delhi.
A couple of days ago, Bhullar`s advocate K T S Tulsi had
urged in the Supreme Court that either his mercy petition
should be decided expeditiously or alternatively his death
sentence be commuted.
The President has also rejected the mercy petition of
Das who has been found guilty of murdering one Hara Kanta Das.
This is for the first time since 2004, when the go ahead
has been given for the execution of Dhanjay Chatterjee, that
the President has given the nod for any execution.
PTI
