President Pranab Mukherjee (PTI file photo)

NEW DELHI: A month before demitting office, President Pranab Mukherjee rejected mercy petitions in two cases. This brings the total mercy pleas rejected by him to 30. The petitions were rejected in the last week of May.

The first case pertained to the 2012 rape and murder of a four-year old girl in Indore by three men, and the other to the gang rape and murder of a techie in Pune by a cab driver and his accomplice. The two cases were forwarded to the President in April and May.

In the Indore case, the three convicts — Babu alias Ketan (22 years old at the time of the crime), Jitendra alias Jitu (20) and Devendra alias Sunny (22) — were found guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing a four-year old while she was watching a wedding procession.

After sexually assaulting her, the accused had strangled the victim to death and dumped her body in a drain.

In the Pune case, convicts Purushottam Dasharath Borate and Pradeep Yashvant Kokade were awarded the death penalty for raping and killing a 22-year-old Wipro employee in 2007.

Among the other mercy petitions rejected by President Mukherjee over his five-year tenure are those of 26/11 Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab in November 2012, 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in February 2013, and 1993 Bombay blasts convict Yakub Memon in July 2015. He has also commuted to life the death sentences of four convicts, the last being in January.

There is no fixed time for the President to decide on a mercy plea. Pratibha Patil demitted office without taking a decision on any of the mercy pleas before her.

