President Pranab Mukherjee commutes death penalty of Assam man

Ten years after a man was awarded death sentence for killing his wife, two minor sons and a neighbourhood woman in upper Assam, President Pranab Mukherjee has commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment. This is a rare case where the President has accepted the mercy petition of a person convicted for gruesome murders. Earlier, Mukherjee had rejected mercy petitions of 22 death row convicts at a stretch. Man Bahadur Dewan alias Tote Dewan, now 63-years-old and lodged in Jorhat Central Jail, rarely had a visitor all these years as his surviving son and daughter had shunned him after the crime.

According to the prosecution, Dewan, a resident of Sessapukhuri Nepali basti under Moranhat police station in Sivasagar district, nearly 420 km east of Guwahati, had picked up a quarrel with his wife Gouri (35) on September 29, 2002. That night, though the quarrel came to an end with his wife preferring to remain silent, Dewan remained restless, until he woke up around 4 am, picked up a dao (machete), and hacked her to death. He then also hacked his two sons Rajib (10) and Kajib (who was just about eight months old) and started looking for his another son Raju and daughter Jyotimaya.

Raju and Jyotimaya, however, had already run away the previous night on seeing their father getting violent during the quarrel, and were sleeping in the house of a relative. Dewan, who came out of the house with the dao first knocked at the door of Prasad Dewan and Bijoy Dewan, but as the two did not open the door, he proceeded to the next house which belonged to one Raj Kumar Dewan. There he found Raj Kumar’s 60-year-old mother Bidhimaya in the compound, and even without uttering a word simply inflicted two blows with the dao on her neck.

Dewan then returned to his house, picked up the severed head of son Rajib, put it in a plastic bag and proceeded to Moranhat police station where he surrendered. While Dewan was awarded death sentence by the then Sivasagar Sessions Judge B D Agarwal on December 26, 2003. Later the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court rejected appeals against death sentence. He then filed a mercy plea before the Assam governor on September 2, 2005, who rejected it on December 23, 2013. He then sent the plea to the President on February 10, 2014.

The President is believed to have relied upon the opinion of the Home Ministry which had advised him to take a lenient view of the case. The Ministry is learnt to have advised Mukherjee that Dewan is from a poor background and murdered his wife, sons and a neighbour due to abject poverty and unemployment.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/president-pranab-mukherjee-commutes-death-penalty-of-assam-man/ [last accessed 09 April 2015]

Indian Express 09 April 2015

Assam - Reprieve for death row convict- President commutes Jorhat jail prisoner's sentence to life

Saturday , March 28 , 2015 

Jorhat, March 27: The commutation of the death sentence of Bahadur Dewan alias Tote Dewan - a death row convict lodged at the Central Jail Jorhat - to life sentence by President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday has ended the uncertainty in the prisoner's life.

The prisoner had filed a mercy petition before the President almost a year ago. Earlier, a similar mercy petition had remained pending with the Assam governor for eight years, with the then governor J.B. Patnaik rejecting the plea on December 23, 2013. Dewan, 66, had sent his mercy petition to Rashtrapati Bhavan through the jail authorities, who forwarded it to the state home department on February 10, 2014.

Dewan had requested jail officials to assist him in filing the mercy petition to the President, as he has no family and no one has come to the jail to meet him till date, prison sources said. Dewan, who hails from Seshapukhuri Nepali Basti under Morhanhat police station in Sivasagar district, had hacked to death his wife Gouri, 35, sons Rajib, 10, and eight-month-old Kajib, and neighbour Budhimaya Dewan, 60, on September 30, 2002.

He reportedly had a quarrel with his wife the night before and after waking up early next morning, he picked up a dao (machete) and hacked Gouri and their two sons to death. He then knocked on the door of his neighbour Budhimaya and when she opened it, killed her as well. He has been lodged in Central Jail Jorhat since he was shifted from Sivasagar District Jail on April 12, 2004. The death sentence was awarded to him by the Sivasagar district and sessions court on December 26, 2003 followed by confirmation of the sentence by Gauhati High Court on April 28, 2005, and then by the Supreme Court on August 8, 2005.

Central Jail Jorhat, jailor Sanjib Kumar Chetia told The Telegraph that no official communication has been received regarding commutation of the death sentence till late this afternoon. Chetia, however, said based on media reports, the authorities had informed Dewan about the development. "Some prison inmates read about it (commutation) in the newspapers and could have told Dewan, so we thought we should inform him before he comes to know about the matter from inmates," Chetia said. He added that Dewan was told that the official letter in this regard was yet to arrive. The jailor said Dewan, who mostly keeps to himself and hardly speaks with other prisoners, smiled on hearing that he has been spared the gallows.

Chetia said Dewan thanked the jail officials, who had drafted the mercy plea and asked him whether there was any legal option available to him to petition the government to set him free. The jailor had assured him (Dewan) that he would discuss the matter with his senior officials and let him know. Chetia said the death row convict works in the jail garden voluntarily and is very possessive about the flowers. "Dewan's conduct is good and he seldom interacts with jail staff and other inmates," he added. Chetia said Dewan earns Rs 55 a day for working in the jail garden and uses the money to buy necessary items. In his plea to the President, Dewan has said he committed the murders because of an "unsound state of mind" and later surrendered himself to police. "I had no motive to commit such a crime but owing to my mental insanity I could not control my rage. Sir, I have already spent 11 years in jail and I repent my act and assure you I shall never indulge in any kind of confrontation in jail........." Dewan said in his plea.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150328/jsp/frontpage/story_11280.jsp#.VSZ5V_mUeQo [last accessed 09 April 2015]

After 22 rejections, President commutes death sentence of Assam man who killed four

TNN | Mar 28, 2015, 06.38AM IST NEW DELHI: The death sentence of a murder convict from Assam has been commuted to life imprisonment by President Pranab Mukherjee. This is one of the rare cases where Mukherjee has commuted the death sentence after becoming President in 2012. The relief to the condemned prisoner came after the President rejected mercy petitions of 22 death row convicts at a stretch. The President commuted the death sentence of Man Bahadur Dewan, alias Tote Dewan, from Assam's Dibrugarh district, to life imprisonment, sources said. 

Dewan was sentenced to death for killing his wife Gauri and two minor sons, Rajib and Kajib, in September 2002. He had also killed one of his neighbours, Bidhimaya, and surrendered before the police after the multiple murders. The death sentence of 1993 blast convict Yakub Menon, whose mercy petition was rejected by the President, has been stayed by the Supreme Court. Nithari serial rape and murder convict Surender Koli's mercy petition, too, was rejected by Mukherjee. In Dewan's case, Mukherjee is believed to have relied upon the opinion of the home ministry which had advised him to take a lenient view of the case. The ministry is learnt to have advised Mukherjee that Dewan was from a poor background and murdered his wife, sons and a neighbour due to abject poverty and unemployment.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/After-22-rejections-President-commutes-death-sentence-of-Assam-man-who-killed-four/articleshow/46722185.cms [last accessed 09 April 2015]

382 convicts on death row in country's jails: Centre

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - 15:35 PTI 

New Delhi: There are 382 convicts serving death sentence in the country, by the end of 2013,Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said in last 34 years about 123 mercy petitions were received under Article 72 of the Constitution for consideration of the President. All these mercy petitions have been considered or disposed of except three -- Balwant Singh Rajoana of Chandigarh, Tote Dewan alias Man Bahadur Dewan of Assam and Antony of Kerala, he said in reply to a written question.

These petitions have been processed or submission to the President. "Under Article 72 of the Constitution there is no limitation of time within which the power conferred may be exercised. However, the mercy petitions are disposed off as expeditiously as possible," he said.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/382-convicts-on-death-row-in-countrys-jails-centre_1515672.html [last accessed 06.02.2015]