HC stays murder convict execution
Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday issued a stay on execution of death sentence of a murder convict Mahendra Nath Das till June 17 and asked the Centre as well as the Assam government to submit affidavits before the court by that day explaining why it took 12 years for disposal of the mercy petition of the convict.
The court order came in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by the convict’s mother Kusumbala Das under Article 21 seeking to know why the President of India took 12 long years to dispose of the mercy petition for which her son (Mahendra) has to undergo enormous mental and physical agony.
The court order came at a time when the jail authority in Assam was making final preparations for execution of the death sentence in Jorhat Central jail in any of these days.
One of the petitioner’s counsel informed that after hearing the petition a two-member division bench of the High Court comprising Justice B P Katakey and B K Sharma stayed execution of the death sentence while asking both the Centre and Assam government filed explanation before court by June 17 next for the delay in disposal of the mercy petition.
The mercy petition in question was filed in 1999 before then president of India, KR Narayanan and was rejected only last month by the President of India.
Mahendra was convicted by the court for murder of one Hara Kanta Das at Fancy Bazar in Guwahati way back on April 24, 1996. Immediately after committing the crime Mahendra surrendered before the police along with the weapon (a sword) and a severed head dangling from his hand.
He was subsequently sentenced to death by the session’s judge in Kamrup, Guwahati on August 18, 1997. The death sentence was later confirmed by a division bench of Gauhati High Court on February 3, 1998.
Though the convicted moved the Supreme Court with a prayer to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment, the apex court in turned down the appeal in May 14, 1999.