President Pranab rejects mercy petitions in five cases

New Delhi: Expediting the pending mercy petitions, President Pranab Mukherjee upheld execution in five cases and commuted death sentence to life term in two others. Details of President's decision were not available immediately.

Seven cases of multiple murders, including one in which a convict, who was out on bail on rape charge, killed five members of the girl's family, were sent to the President for final decision in February. The recommendations in seven cases, involving nine people, were sent after the President took decision on mercy petitions of eight condemned prisoners including Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru - both whom have been hanged. While Kasab was hanged on November 21, 2012, Guru was executed on February 9.

The President had also rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, who hails from Karnataka and was convicted for killed his wife and daughter, and mercy petitions of slain brigand Veerappan's associates Gnanaprakash, Simon, 'Meesai' Madaian and Pilavendran, who were sentenced to death for killing 22 police personnel in 1993. However, the mercy petition of Atbir from Delhi, who was convicted for murder of his stepmother, stepsister and stepbrother over property, was commuted to life imprisonment by Mukherjee.

The convicts whose mercy petitions were sent to the President in February with recommendations by the Home Ministry were:

- Dharampal from Haryana who had murdered five members of the family of a girl he had raped in 1993.

- Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA and her husband Sanjeev, who drugged and killed eight of her family in Hisar in 2001 including her parents.

- Sunder Singh from Uttarakhand, who was convicted for rape and murder on June 30, 1989.

- Jafar Ali from Uttar Pradesh killed wife and five daughters in 2002.

- Praveen Kumar from Karnataka was convicted for killing four members of a family on February 23, 1994.

- Gurmeet Singh from Uttar Pradesh killed 13 members of a family on August 17, 1986.

- Suresh and Ramji, also from Uttar Pradesh, were convicted for killing five members of their younger brother's family.

(With additional information from PTI)