In 9-month tenure, Pranab Mukherjee rejected 9 mercy pleas

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected nine mercy petitions sentencing 14 convicts including one woman to death in nine months, making a rejection for every month of his tenure as President. This equals the 14 mercy petitions rejected by President Shankar Dayal Sharma in his fiveyear tenure.

This is in sharp contrast to Mukherjee’s predecessors like K R Narayanan, who did not take up any case, A P J Abdul Kalam, who rejected one plea, and Pratibha Patil who rejected mercy petitions in three cases.

The trend for quick disposal of mercy petitions was set with 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s execution in November 2012 which was the first hanging after 2004 and marked a sharp departure in India’s policy towards death penalty.

Mukherjee then rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna Ningappa Natikar on January 4 and that of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on February 3. He commuted the death sentence of Atbir, who was found guilty for murder of three relatives over a property dispute on November 15, 2012.

Between February and March 2013, Mukherjee rejected the mercy petitions of Veerappan aides Simon, Gnanaprakash , Madaiah and Bilavandran who killed 22 people by blasting a land mine, mass murderers including Suresh and Ramji, Gurmeet Singh and Jafar Ali.

Rapist-murderer Dharampal’s mercy plea was rejected by the President besides that of Sonia and Sanjeev. Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA, and her husband Sanjeev drugged and killed eight of her family in Hisar in 2001, including her parents.

NO MERCY

Mercy petitions rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee
1. Ajmal Kasab: 2012 2. Saibanna Natikar:2013 3. Afzal Guru: 2013 4. Simon, Gnanaprakash, Madaiah, Bilavandran:2013 5. Suresh & Ramji: 2013 6. Gurmeet Singh: 2013 7. Jafar Ali:2013 8. Dharampal: 2013 9. Sonia & Sanjeev: 2013