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Home ministry turns down Kasab’s mercy plea
Vishwa Mohan ,TNN | Oct 24, 2012, 04.26AM IST 
http://t.co/6bJ5hiSc
NEW DELHI: The home ministry has rejected 26/11 Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab's plea to commute his death sentence to life and sent its recommendation to President Pranab Mukherjee for final disposal.
The home ministry "processed Kasab's mercy petition" within three weeks of receiving the file from the Maharashtra government. This brings to an end the legal options before Kasab in appealing his death sentence that has been confirmed by the Supreme Court.
It is almost four years since Kasab landed on the shores of Mumbai in a dinghy as part of a 10-man Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) squad — all Pakistani nationals — to unleash a reign of terror lasting three days that killed 166 people and left the iconic Taj hotel in flames.
Kasab, a native of Okara in Pakistan, was the sole member of the Lashkar squad to be captured alive and proved to be invaluable in establishing the role of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and members of the Pakistani military establishment in planning and executing the Mumbai attacks.
Apart from witness accounts, CCTV footage of Kasab armed with AK-47 striding into Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) helped secure Kasab's conviction. An exclusive picture of Kasab with gun in hand was also captured by a TOI photographer, when the LeT man was at a foot over-bridge near CST.
Perhaps aware that a delay in confirming Kasab's death sentence could only trigger a political controversy — as in the case of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru — the government did not take much time in processing the relevant file.
The home ministry displayed similar alacrity earlier in dismissing the mercy plea of Kehar Singh, who was awarded a death sentence for the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi. Kehar Singh's file was processed and rejected within three months (October-December 1988).
More typically, the home ministry can take years to process pleas of death row convicts. It took the government more than five years to process Guru's file. It finally rejected Guru's mercy plea and submitted the government's opinion to the President over a year ago. However, the case is still pending with the President's secretariat.
Though 'technically' it is the President who takes a final call on a mercy petition under Article 72 of the Constitution, Rashtapati Bhawan never goes against the opinion offered by the government. The President can, at best, send the file back to the government for reconsideration. If the government does not alter its decision, the President accepts the opinion.
The President can, however, sit on a mercy plea file as the Constitution does not lay down a timeframe. The constitutional provision has seen the waiting time of current death row convicts range from three to 20 years in the case of 11 petitions still pending with the President. Kasab's mercy petition is the 12th in line with Pranab. His predecessor Pratibha Patil had decided 18 cases — with majority of them being commuted. At present, only the file of Balwant Singh Rajoana — killer of former Punjab CM Beant Singh — is with the home ministry.
The SC upheld death penalty for Kasab on August 29..........................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEyLzEwLzI0I0FyMDEwMDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
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