NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- Indian President Pratibha Patil has commuted the death sentence of 35 people to life imprisonment, the highest by the country's head of state in three decades.
However, the first woman president of the country rejected mercy petitions of five people who had committed heinous crime, including the three assassins of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said the 35 prisoners who had their sentences commuted to a life term were involved in 19 cases while mercy petitions granted by the president included those convicted of mass murder, kidnapping, rape and killing of children.
Nearly all of the convicts pardoned are guilty of the most blood-curdling crimes, Press Trust of India reported.
Piara Singh, Sarabjit Singh, Gurdev Singh and Satnam Singh massacred 17 members of a family at a marriage function. Gopi and Mohan (Tamil Nadu) and Molai Ram and Santosh (Madhya Pradesh) had raped and murdered little girls.
On June 2, Patil granted pardon to—Bandu Baburao Tidke from Karnataka, a religious teacher of Sadashiva Appana Math, Bagalkot who abducted a 16-year-old schoolgirl and later raped and murdered her.
On February 9, the president accepted the clemency petition of Sushil Murmu pending since 2004. He was convicted for giving bali (sacrifice) of a nine-year-old-boy in Jharkhand for his own prosperity.
A total of 91 convicts had sought commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment since 1981. Of these, 23 out of 31 petitions accepted were during Patil's five-year tenure. -- NNN-BERNAMA
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