President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy pleas of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan’s four associates, sentenced to death in a 1993 landmine blast case who are lodged in the Hindlaga jail in Belgaum.
The Supreme Court in a case had sentenced Gnanaprakash, Simon, ‘Meesai’ Madaian and Pilavendran to death by in 2004 in connection with the landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993, carried out by the Veerappan gang, in which 22 police personnel were killed.
As the mercy plea has been rejected and the same has been communicated to the families of the four convicts, it is very likely that the hanging would take place in Belgaum any time soon.
The process until his actual hanging may take many years. See at this the wait for the those on the death line at the Central Prison at Hindalga here, include 38 of the 42 condemned prisoners of Karnataka, has been 10 to 15 years since they have been sentenced. Those on death row include four associates Veerappan and 11 convicts of bomb blasts about eight to ten years ago.
The Hindalga jail was built by the British in 1923 and has three gallows. The last hanging was done in November 1983 of Hanumant Malla, convicted of five murders.
Meanwhile, an execution will take place in a Karnataka jail after 30 years. The last person to be hanged in the state was Hanumanth Mallaa in 1983.
The four men are likely to be executed at Belgaum’s Hindalga jail, the only prison in the state which has convicts on the death row.
Other jails in Karnataka are not equipped to execute a death sentence.
The Hindalga Jail spreads over an area of 99 acres. It has a capacity to accommodate 1,162 prisoners.
When will they be hanged? The next hanging is over…
good decision by the president of India