Days after the hanging of Afzal Guru President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy pleas of four associates of the infamous forest brigand Veerappan, who were sentenced to death in a landmine blast case.
The four accused whose mercy pleas have been rejected have been identified as Gnanprakasham, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran, reported IBNlive.
Advocate S Balamurugan, appearing for the accused, told The Times of India, “We have received information from reliable sources that the message has been sent to Belgaum jail authorities and apparently it has also been conveyed to the prisoners.”
Veerappan. Reuters
A Mysore court had awarded life term to the four associates of Veerappan for their involvement in the killing of 21 policemen in a landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993. But the Karnataka government appealed against the life term and filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court awarded them the death sentence in January 2004. Their mercy pleas have been pending since 2004.
Earlier, Pranab Mukherjee had rejected the mercy pleas of 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab and 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Kasab, a Pakistani terrorist, was hanged in Pune’s Yerwada Jail on 21 November, 2012.
Afzal Guru, a resident of Sopore in Kashmir, was finally hanged on 9 February, 2013 inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail and his body buried in the premises.
