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

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.