The Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment after the Centre had also backed the reduction of his sentence.
“Due to an inordinate delay for eight years, the Supreme Court said death could not be awarded to Bhullar,” Bhullar’s lawyer KTS Tulsi told reporters outside the apex court.
Bhullar is the latest death row convict to benefit from a recent Supreme Court ruling that “undue, inordinate and unreasonable delay in execution of death sentence [amounts to] torture” and was a ground for commutation of sentence.
The SC stand on the death penalty has been widely welcomed: Reuters
Quoting extensively from international treaties and standards, the court stated that the execution of people suffering from mental illness would be unconstitutional. It ruled that “insanity” or mental illness would be a factor that warranted commutation of a death sentence. The Court also reiterated that solitary confinement of a prisoner on death row was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court also laid down guidelines on the treatment of people under sentence of death, in a move that could end the trend towards secrecy in executions in 2012 and 2013.
According to the guidelines, prisoners on death row should receive legal aid, be informed about the rejection of their mercy petitions and in writing, have their mental and physical conditions regularly checked and be allowed to meet their family members before execution, which should not happen before two weeks from the communication of the rejection of the mercy petition.
Here is a list of all the death row convicts who have seen their sentences commuted in the aftermath of this ruling:
Devinderpal Singh Bhullar (Bomb blast in Delhi)
An engineering teacher by profession, Bhullar taught in Ludhiana before his conviction for a bomb blast in Delhi.
He was declared guilty (under India’s Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) of killing nine bystanders in a 1993 car bombing intended to kill politician Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, and sentenced to death by hanging by a split decision.
The bench had on 31 January stayed Bhullar’s execution and had agreed to review its judgement by which it had rejected the 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict’s plea to commute his death sentence to life.
It had issued notice to the Centre and Delhi government on a curative petition and had also directed IHBAS, where Bhullar is being treated, to file a medical report on the condition of the death row convict who is alleged to be suffering from mental illness.
The plea of Bhullar’s wife for the commutation of his death sentence assumes significance in view of the apex court’s 21 January verdict holding that inordinate and inexplicable delay by the government in deciding mercy pleas of death row convicts can be a ground for commuting their sentence. Bhullar’s wife filed the petition against the apex court verdict which rejected her plea to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment on grounds of delay on the part of the government in deciding his mercy plea.
Santhan alias T. Suthenthiraraja: (Rajiv Gandhi assassination)
A Sri Lankan national in his twenties at the time of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Santhan was allegedly a member of the intelligence wing of the LTTE and was close to the prime accused Sivarasan.
He was sent to Madras to continue his studies and after coming to India, studied in the Madras Institute of Engineering Technology, where his fees were allegedly paid by the LTTE.
Santhan was allegedly a crucial cog in the planning of the assassination and was one of the few conspirators who was informed early on about the fact that their target was Rajiv Gandhi. He had also met with Sivarasan on the day of the assassination and seen him off.
Murugan (Rajiv Gandhi assassination)
Twenty one years old at the time of the incident, Murugan was a part of the LTTE in Sri Lanka and was allegedly sent to India to carry out the assassination. In a confession given to the police, Murugan admitted that he was a part of the ‘suicide squad’ and had come to India in January 1991 and even motivated Nalini to join the LTTE.
He had also aided in a recce carried out before the assassination attempt in which the eventual bombers had attended a rally of the then Prime Minister VP Singh.
Following the successful assassination, Murugan went with wife Nalini to give thanks at the Tirupati temple according to investigators.
He was convicted on the basis of his confessional statement which a court observed showed his role as one of the key conspirators.
AG Perarivalan
A 20-year-old at the time, Perarivalan, is the son of a Tamil poet and had been a part of the LTTE from 1989.
He was involved in the sale of LTTE literature and even met LTTE chief Veluppillai Prabhakaran and other leaders of LTTE when he went to Sri Lanka. He was accused of aiding the movement of LTTE cadres into India and even preparing a sketch of the Vellore fort to free prisoners of the terror group.
Perarivalan was also allegedly involved in getting equipment for the bomb used to kill Rajiv Gandhi and also carrying out a reece of VP Singh’s rally to assess security arrangements. Robert Pious:: A Sri Lankan Tamil, he is alleged to have landed with his wife and others as part of a batch of LTTE commandos in September 1990.
Pious had claimed his child had died due to atrocities perpetrated by the IPKF sent to Sri Lanka due to which he wanted to seek revenge. Pious, in his confession statement, has admitted to being part of the key planners for the assassination and was convicted for his role in the conspiracy.
Bilavendran, Simon, Gnanprakasam and Madiah
All four people are aides of Veerappan, convicted for a landmine blast in 1993.
The four were awarded life sentences by the TADA court in Mysore after they were found guilty of involvement in the Palar blast case in which 22 people — mainly policemen — were killed in a landmine explosion triggered by Veerappan in April 1993.
A few organisations and activists appealed in the Supreme Court against the life sentence. The apex court, however, enhanced the sentence to death. Their mercy petitions had been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.
The others who benefitted from the ruling are:
Sonia and Sanjeev Choudhary (murder of eight relatives),
Gurmeet Singh (murder of 13 relatives),
Shivu and Jadeswamy (rape and murder of a woman),
Suresh and Ramji (murder of five relatives),
Jafar Ali (murder of wife and five daughters),
Praveen Kumar (murder of four people), Sunder Singh (murder of five relatives)
Maganlal Barela (murder of five daughters).
Bhullar to Santhan: Beneficiaries of SC ruling on death penalty
No comments:
Post a Comment