President Pranab Mukherjee rejects two more mercy petitions before leaving office: Report

Pranab Mukherjee’s predecessor Pratibha Patil had accepted mercy pleas of 30 death row convicts.

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee, whose term ends on July 24, reportedly rejected two mercy petitions in the last week of May.

With this, according to The Times of India, the total mercy pleas rejected by Mukherjee comes to 30.

Notably, Mukherjee’s predecessor Pratibha Patil had accepted mercy pleas of 30 death row convicts.

One of the two cases in which President Mukherjee rejected the mercy petition recently pertained to the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl by three men [ Jeetu (21), Babu alias Ketan (27) and Sunny alias Devendra (24)] on June 24, 2012 in Somnath ki Juni Chawl area in Indore. The men kidnapped the girl while she was watching a wedding procession, raped her and strangulated her to death.

The other case is that of the gang-rape and murder of a techie in Pune by a cabbie and his accomplice in 2007. The girl, who was en route to office for the night shift, was picked up by a cab. Convicts Purushottam Dasharath Borate and Pradeep Yashvant Kokade then raped and killed the 22-year-old Wipro employee.

Among the other mercy petitions turned down by President Mukherjee over his five-year tenure are those of 26/11 Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab in November 2012, 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in February 2013, and 1993 Bombay blasts convict Yakub Memon in July 2015, reported the daily.