SC commutes death sentence of M N Das , a condemned prisoner from Assam

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted death sentence of M N Das, a condemned prisoner from Assam, to life sentence. M N Das had been on death row for last 16 years. The apex court took into account the long delay in deciding the mercy plea as a ground for commuting Das's death sentence.

Recently, the SC had rejected a similar plea from Devinder Singh Bhullar, who was awarded death penalty for 1993 bomb blast in Delhi that killed 9. Das, while out on bail in another case, had beheaded one Harakanta Das at Fancy Bazaar in Assam and surrendered with the victim's head on April 24, 1996 and in 1997, the sessions court there had sentenced him to death.

His conviction and sentence was subsequently upheld by the Gauhati high court in 1998 and the Supreme Court in 1999. He had moved in 1999 a mercy plea, which remained pending for eleven years before the President and was rejected in 2011. Das had then filed a writ petition in the apex court pleading for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment since he had already spent about 14 years in jail during the disposal of his petition seeking presidential clemency.

He is currently lodged in Jorhat Central Jail in Assam.
(With inputs from PTI)

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-01/india/38956539_1_death-sentence-mercy-plea-m-n-das [accessed on 2nd May 2013]

President Pratibha Patil gives life to dead man (President Pratibha Patil had commuted the death sentences of 35 convicts to life imprisonment so far during her term as President.)

R Uday Kumar & Ravi Uppar,TNN | Jun 23, 2012, 04.25AM IST BELGAUM (KARNAKATA): A day after TOI reported that President Pratibha Patil had commuted the death sentences of 35 convicts to life in prison, it came to light on Friday that one of the beneficiaries of her mercy died almost five years ago. Bandu Tidke's sentence for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl came from the President's office on June 2. It has raised doubts about whether the clemency decisions - for many convicted of murder and rape - on the advice of the Union home ministry were based on correct information or taken in haste. In Tidke's case, either the state jail officials or Karnataka's home department and subsequently the Union home ministry had not informed the President's office about his death on October 18, 2007. Tidke was 31 years old and HIV-positive. Sources in the state prisons department said Tidke's file had been moved to the Centre two to three years ago. Prisons minister A Narayanaswamy, however, said, "It takes some time for the President to consider after a file is moved. I think the file in this case was moved when the convict was alive." Tidke was arrested for rape and murder in 2002. In 2005, he was given the death sentence by the Bagalkot district court. Since November 30, 2005, he was lodged in the Hindalga Jail in Belgaum. According to police files, Tidke, a sugarcane cutter from Beed district in Maharashtra, migrated in 2002 to Bagalkot in Karnataka where he posed as a swamiji and stayed at a local mutt. That year, he dragged a 16-year-old girl from a nearby school to his room, raped and murdered her. He left the body there and escaped to Shirdi where he was arrested. Tidke appealed in the high court in 2006 but the court turned down his plea. Justices S R Bannurmath and N Ananda described him "like a devil in the garb of a swami". He then sent a mercy plea to the President. Five years too late 2002: Bandu Baburao Tidke, a sugarcane cutter from Beed district of Maharashtra migrates to Bagalkot in Karnataka. Dresses up like a swamiji and lives in a mutt. Drags a 16-year-old schoolgirl to the mutt, rapes and murders her. Flees to Shirdi where he is arrested. 2005: Bagalkot court sentences Tidke to death. Sent to Hindalga Jail in Belgaum. 2006: Tidke appeals to high court against death sentence, but court turns petition. Tidke found to be HIV positive. October 18, 2007: Tidke dies in Belgaum government hospital. June 2, 2012: President Pratibha Patil commutes long-dead Tidke's death sentence to life term. [Source: Times of India; accessed on 23rd June 2012 See at http://sp.m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/14349473.cms]

India’s kindest president commutes 23 death penalty to life term

PTI: Feb 21, 2012

New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil has commuted death sentences of 23 petitioners to life imprisonment during her tenure, which is over 90 percent of the total pardon granted since 1981.

On 9 February, she accepted the clemency petition of Sushil Murmu, pending since 2004, who was convicted for giving sacrifice of a nine-year old boy in Jharkhand for his own prosperity, an RTI response from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

It said that since 1981, 91 convicts knocked the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan seeking commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment. Of these, petitions of 31 individuals were accepted out of which 23 were during her tenure.

According to the reply provided to applicant Subhash Agrawal, 18 mercy petitions were still pending before the president.

Patil, however, in exceptional cases, has rejected the petitions of five individuals which include the three killers of Rajiv Gandhi—Santham, Murughan and Arivu—and Davinder Pal Singh and Mahedra Nath Das of Assam who had murdered 68-year-old Harakanta Das, the then secretary of the Guwahati Truck Drivers Association at a roadside stall.

In Murmu’s case, his sentence was commuted to life by Patil even though he was convicted for the killing, which was termed by the Supreme Court as “an illustrative and most exemplary case to be treated as the ‘rarest of rare cases’ in which death sentence is and should be the rule, with no exception whatsoever”.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/indias-kindest-president-commutes-23-death-penalty-to-life-term-220419.html [accessed 23rd Feb 2012]

Contract killer’s death penalty converted to life imprisonment

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday converted the sentence of a contract killer who had killed a witness six years ago from death penalty to life imprisonment on the grounds that the case did not fall in the category of rarest of the rare. Mani Gopal had murdered the witness, an eunuch, inside the Tis Hazari court premises in 2003 when she was going to record her evidence in a murder case.

Geeta Hazi, a resident of Rajouri Garden in Delhi, had allegedly hired Gopal to eliminate Neelam as there was a dispute between them over control of areas for collection of donations and gifts on auspicious occasions. The accused had fired three shots at Neelam, killing her on the spot. The police arrested Gopal instantly and seized the weapon.

Hazi had earlier in 2002 allegedly hired another killer to eliminate Neelam. But instead of killing Neelam, the killer murdered another eunuch. However, the court had acquitted the contract killer in a separate trial for want of evidence.

A division bench comprising of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Indermeet Kaur said: “Keeping in view the fact that the crime committed by Gopal is more than a murder of an ordinary category, we hold that the instant case falls in the category where the appropriate sentence to be imposed is of imprisonment for life with a direction that Gopal would not be considered for being granted remission till he undergoes an actual sentence of 20 years.” The bench said that by killing the witness the accused had “polluted the stream of justice”.

The court while converting the death penalty to life imprisonment ruled: “To attract the penalty of death, it has to be established that the case falls in the category of the rarest of the rare. “Witnesses being threatened, intimidated or bought over has been plaguing the criminal justice delivery system in India to such an extent that in the eyes of the public the system itself has come under trial.

“The existence of the state is dependent upon a good, effective and efficient criminal justice delivery system. If the same fails, the citizens would settle their disputes in private and the rule of law would cease to exist,” the court said.

Source: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/contract-killers-death-penalty-converted-to-life-imprisonment_100240865.html accessed on 1st September 2009)