The Prisons Department finally allowed visitors to meet the four aides of Veerappan who are facing death sentence at Hindalga jail on Tuesday.
The four asked their relatives to take care of their children and families as they are poor and innocent.
Veerappan’s older brother Gnanaprakash, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran were awarded the death sentence in 2004 in connection with a landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993, in which 22 police personnel were killed.
In an application to the jail superintendent, Fr Joseph Alexander, Fr Martin Kumar Joseph and Fr Anthony Swamy, who had initially claimed they were not related to the four, claimed on Monday that they are all relatives of the convicts.
“After being told that their mercy petitions were rejected by the President on Tuesday, they have become nervous,” one of the visitors told reporters outside the jail.
The jail authorities arranged for the visitors to meet the convicts in their cells for about 15 minutes with their advocate, Ramesh.