RTI Happenings: Pratibha leaves mercy petitions of Afzal Guru, 15 others for new President

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Reported by Shyamlal Yadav in Indianexpress.com on Jul 22, 2012
Pratibha leaves mercy petitions of Afzal Guru, 15 others for new President - Indian Express

When the new President is elected tomorrow, among the uncleared files that will be on his table are the mercy petitions of 16 convicts including Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted for the terrorist attack on Parliament in December 2001.

While outgoing President Pratibha Patil decided on 39 mercy petitions involving 21 cases from November 2009 to June 2012, she has left 11 cases for her successor.

According to information received through the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the President’s Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the mercy petitions were not decided in any chronological order. For instance, the President’s Secretariat received the MHA’s recommendation on Afzal Guru’s mercy plea on August 4, 2011. But no decision was taken although 13 petitions received after that were cleared.

The 11 cases in which the mercy pleas are still pending are:

Md Afzal Guru (Delhi): Convicted for the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001; sentenced to death on August 4, 2005; MHA sent his mercy plea recommendation on August 4, 2011.

Gurmeet Singh (UP): Convicted for killing 13 members of a family on August 17, 1986; sentenced to death on September 28, 2005; MHA sent recommendation on December 11, 2009.

Dharampal (Haryana): Convicted for killing five persons during bail granted in a rape case on June 10, 1993; sentenced to death on March 18, 1999; MHA sent recommendation on September 15, 2010.

Suresh and Ramji (UP): Convicted for killing five members of brother’s family; sentenced to death on March 2, 2011; MHA sent recommendation on February 24, 2011.

Simon, Gnanprakash, Madaiah and Bilavandra (Karnataka): Convicted for killing 22 police personnel in April 1993; sentenced to death on January 29, 2004; MHA sent recommendation on May 30, 2011.

Praveen Kumar (Karnataka): Convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994; sentenced to death on September 15, 2003; MHA sent recommendation on July 18, 2011.

Saibana Nigappa Natikar (Karnataka): Convicted for killing his wife and daughter; sentenced to death on April 21, 2005; MHA sent recommendation on August 4, 2011.

Jafar Ali (UP): Convicted for killing his wife and five daughters in 2002; sentenced to death on April 5, 2004; MHA sent recommendation on November 3, 2011.

Sonia, Sanjeev (Haryana): Convicted for killing stepbrother and his family including three minors, father, mother and sister on August 23, 2001; sentenced to death on February 15, 2007; MHA sent recommendation on January 20, 2012.

Sundar Singh (Uttarakhand): Convicted for committing rape and murder on June 30, 1989; sentenced to death on September 16, 2010; MHA sent recommendation on February 7, 2012.

Atbir (Delhi): Convicted for killing stepmother and her two children on January 22, 1996; sentenced to death on August 9, 2010; MHA sent recommendation on June 19, 2012.

In most of these cases, the MHA sent its recommendation on the mercy pleas more than once. For instance, in the case of Gurmeet Singh, the MHA first recommended his mercy plea on May 18, 2007 and then again on December 9, 2009.

In 2008, Patil had asked the government to review all the mercy petitions. Accordingly, the MHA sent 55 mercy petitions involving 32 cases to the President’s Secretariat since November 2009.

Among those whose mercy petitions were rejected by Patil were Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar of Punjab, convicted for plotting terror attacks; Mahendra Nath Das of Assam, convicted for a murder in 1996; and Murugan alias Sriharan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

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Reported by Vaibhav Ganjapure in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Jul 25, 2012
Pratibha Patil passes on 11 clemency pleas to Pranab Mukherjee - The Times of India

NAGPUR: After taking over as India's 13th president, Pranab Mukherjee will have one tough task on hands- to decide on mercy petitions of 11 death row convicts, including that of Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru. Outgoing president Pratibha Patil left the fate of these 11 for the veteran politician to decide, as per information obtained from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and President Secretariat under RTI Act by activist Subhash Agrawal.

In her five-year tenure, Patil decided on 39 mercy petitions involving 21 cases from November 2009 to June this year. However, she faced intense criticism from all quarters for commuting death sentences of as many as 35 of them. These included those charged with serious and barbaric crimes like mass killings, kidnappings and rapes of as many as 22 women and children. She created record of sorts as far as disposal of clemency pleas is concerned. She rejected the pleas of five convicts that included killers of former premier Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.

Her offering clemency to 35 convicts, whose cases were among the "rarest of rare", was most by any head of the state in the last three decades and earned her the tag of being most "merciful" president. In fact, it was Patil herself who had asked MHA to review the death penalties in 2008.

As per RTI reply, as many as 91 convicts on death row had appealed for clemency since 1981. Of them, 35 petitions were accepted during Patil's tenure that began in 2007. Interestingly, India had voted against resolution banning capital punishment at the United Nations. The last person to be executed in India was Dhanonjay Chatterjee after his appeal was rejected by former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

According to Agrawal, it would have set an example if Patil had personally heard family-members of victims brutally killed by these criminals. In some cases minor girls were gang-raped before being tortured to death. "She must not have forgotten that Indian constitution makes president just a symbolic head for most purposes, and s/he must not interfere with apex court's decisions so liberally and legally mercilessly," he mentioned in his remarks.

Warning the government of repetition of incidents like infamous hijack of IC-814 at Kandahar in Afghanistan by the terrorists to free Afzal Guru or even Ajmal Kasab, the veteran RTI activist demanded that the rule should be to decide on mercy-petitions within three months of their filing and hanging should be within one week of rejection.

Death row convicts whose mercy petitions are to be decided by new president:

1) Gurmeet Singh

2) Dharampal

2) Suresh and Ramji

4) Simon, Gnanaprakash, Madaiah and Bilavendra

5) Praveen Kumar

6) Mohammed Afzal Guru

7) Saibanna Ningappa Natikar

8) Jafar Ali

8) Sonia and Sanjeev

10) Sundar Singh

11) Atbir