NEW DELHI ? India?s Supreme Court issued a stay of execution Wednesday for four members of a notorius gang, delaying their hanging at least six weeks, after defense attorneys argued that a years-long wait for a clemency appeal hearing was inhumane.
Defense lawyers maintain that the sentences for the four men should be commuted to life imprisonment.
The men have been on death row since 2004, the same year their infamous leader, Veerappan, was killed by police in an ambush code-named ?Operation Cocoon.?
Veerappan, long considered India?s most daring and ruthless bandit, was accused over several decades of kidnapping, smuggling, poaching and carrying out some 100 killings. Known for his large handlebar mustache, Veerappan, who like many in southern India used only one name, reportedly recruited the four men, then-farmers in southern Karnataka state, initially as informants, then taught them to use firearms and explosives.
In 1993, Veerappan and several gang members, including Meesekar Madaiah, Simon, Gnanaprakasam and Bilavendran, were accused of blowing up a security vehicle with landmines, killing 22 police and forestry officials. The four have maintained their innocence since their convictions in 2004 for crimes against the state.
Regulations stipulate that convicts must be executed within 14 days of their rejected clemency appeal by the president, which occurred Feb. 13. But the court?s action Wednesday kept open the defense request for commuted sentences.
Meanwhile, at Hindalga jail, where the four condemned men are being held, officials reportedly recruited staff members to carry out the executions, holding mock hangings recently to hone their skills.
The prisoners ?are all healthy and well aware that they will be hanged soon,? the jail?s medical officer, Dr. Vasant Yamakanamaradi, told local reporters.
Executions are rare in India, but the pace has picked up recently with two hangings in three months. In November, India executed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166. And on Feb. 9, in a controversial case, Afzal Guru, convicted as an accomplice in a 2001 attack on parliament, was hanged in secret. The last execution before these those two was in 2004.
Suhas Chakma, director of New Delhi-based Asian Center for Human Rights, said India should abolish the death penalty since studies show it doesn?t deter crime. In addition, politics plays a part in Indian capital punishment cases, he said.
Chakma said the execution of Guru, a Kashmiri Muslim, has created ill will among Muslims as the ruling Congress party approaches the 2014 elections, especially given its mishandling, with the government failing to notify his family before the hanging. Accordingly, the Congress party needs to show it?s carrying out non-Muslim executions to appease Muslim voters, he said.
Government officials have denied any political motivation in their execution policy.
Veerappan, born in 1952, started his criminal career poaching as a teenager. He teamed up with poacher and sandalwood smuggler Xavier Gounder around 1970, trading in banned ivory, killing elephants, police, forestry officials and informers who crossed his path, eventually edging out Gounder as gang leader.
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In the mid-1980s, he started kidnapping and killing senior officials, a direct challenge to the government. Along the way, Veerappan developed a reputation for slippery tactics, escaping or eluding capture several times while operating across vast swathes of jungle. Locals feared the gang, said to number around 40 at its peak, which killed suspected informers and rewarded villagers who helped them.
In July 2000, Veerappan gained national prominence by kidnapping movie star Rajkumar and holding him for three months, hoping to exchange him for jailed gang members. No exchange occurred, but the gang eventually negotiated a $4.4 million ransom for Rajkumar?s release.
Police finally caught up with Veerappan in 2004 when an undercover officer, posing as an ambulance driver, offered to take him and three gang members to a clinic reportedly for an eye problem Veerappan had. Police surrounded the vehicle and opened fire, hitting all four. Police recovered guns, grenades and several thousand dollars in cash from the ambulance.
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(Tanvi Sharma in the Times? New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.)
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?2013 Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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Source: http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2013/feb/20/indias-supreme-court-stays-executions-of-4-gang/
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