A petition will be filed in the Karnataka HC to stop hanging of four persons, who were said to be involved in the Palar bomb blast incident that occurred in 1993, after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected their mercy petitions, said senior counsel BB Mohan, who attended many cases related to slain forest brigand Veerappan and his relatives.
Talking to Express, Mohan said that in the land mine blast incident, 21 were killed and 11 others, including the then SP Gopalakrishnan, suffered serious injuries. Karnataka police registered a case against 124 persons, including Veerappan. Mysore TADA court acquitted 117 and awarded life term to seven accused. When the seven convicts filed an appeal against the life term in the Supreme Court, the apex court awarded death sentence to Madayan, Pelavendan, Simon and Gnanaprakasam. At present, they were lodged in Belgaum prison.
Simon of Gobinatham was a lorry driver, ‘Meesai’ Madayan of Kolathur worked in a saw mill at Karungalpalayam, and Pilavendran and Gnanaprakasam were residents of hamlets on the TN-Karnataka border.
Mohan said as many of the arrested were innocent, the court released them. The four accused were also not directly involved in the crime. Since the mercy petitions had been rejected, the convicts could apply under Section 433 of CrPC to the government to commute the punishment as the power to execute the court order wrested with the government, Mohan said.
A similar plea was moved in the Rajiv assassination case by Murugan, Perarivalan and Santhan whose mercy petitions were also rejected by the President.