New Delhi, May 31: The death sentence of four prisoners, including a man convictd for rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, has been commuted to life imprisonment by the President.
Three mercy petitions of four condemned prisoners namely Om Prakash of Uttarakhand, Satish of Uttar Pradesh and Karan Singh and Kunwar Bahadur Singh of Uttar Pradesh were considered under Article 72 of the Constitution and their death sentences were commuted into imprisonment for life, Home Minister P Chidambaram told his monthly press conference here today.
Article 72 gives power to the President to grant pardons, etc, and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases.
“The President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence,” it says.
Om Prakash, a domestic help, was convicted for killing a retired Brigadier and his two family members in Dehradun 18 years ago. Whereas Satish was convicted for rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.
Whereas, Karan Singh and Kunwar Bahadur Singh were sentenced to death for brutally killing five persons of a family.
In a statement giving details of the activities of his ministry during the month, the Home Minister said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was declared to be an ‘Unlawful Association' for a period of two years, under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Chidambaram also held a meeting with Chief of Air Staff and Defence Secretary regarding deployment of helicopters in the left wing extremism affected states.
Besides, a meeting with the Directors General of Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has also taken place to review the situation in the LWE-affected states.
Chidambaram said the meetings with the chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya to discuss security related issues including inter-state issues were held during the month.
“North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisations) and other related laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012 was passed by both Houses of Parliament to enable establishment of separate High Courts in Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura,” he said.
Chidambaram said eight kms of fencing and seven kms of road works were completed under phase II of the project along India-Pakistan border. Poles for floodlighting were also erected on a length of 15 kms and cables were laid on 15 kms stretch during the month.
“An amount of Rs 1.75 crore was released to the coastal states and union territoris for construction of coastal police stations and jetties,” the Minister said.
Chidambaram said that a central IVFRT (Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking) office was inaugurated at the national capital which will record every visitor who enters India through any of the international gateways or Integrated Check Posts (ICPs). “A Unique Case File (UCF) will be created for every visitor,” the Home Minister said.
The Government has made operational an integrated on-line visa application system under the mission mode Project on IVFRT at the Indian missions in Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan, Seoul in South Korea, Mombasa in Kenya and Adilya in Bahrain.
“Scanning of population enumeration schedules has been completed. The data processing of more than 22 crore (81.48 per cent) out of the total of 27 crore schedules has been completed,” he said.
An amount of Rs 10.22 lakh was released to National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI) for the creation of a web portal on anti-human trafficking, he said.
