The Hindu : Supreme Court notice to Veerappan associates

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 28, 2003

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Supreme Court notice to Veerappan associates

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI NOV. 27. The Supreme Court today issued notice to Simon and three others, associates of the forest brigand Veerappan, why in the event of their conviction in the `landmine blast case' the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to them by the Special TADA Court, Mysore, not be increased to capital punishment.

A Bench, comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice B.N. Agrawal, ordered notice to Simon, Gnanaprakash, Meesamadaiah and Blavendre, during hearing of their appeals challenging the punishment awarded to them. On October 16, the apex court after the disposal of two appeals had acquitted Simon and others.

The present notice is in respect of the landmine blast incident which occurred on April 9, 1993 within the M.M. Hills Police station limits in which 21 persons were killed and the trial court had awarded life imprisonment to the four.

The Special Judge, in his judgment dated September 29, 2001 while acquitting 109 accused, had sentenced seven persons to life imprisonment and one was awarded five years imprisonment for offences, including possession of arms without licence in the notified areas, and six were released as they were incarcerated during the trial for a period longer than the punishment under the law for proven charges. All the eight filed appeals in the apex court challenging their conviction.

The Special TADA Court had tried 123 persons who were arrested in connection with the Ramapura Police Station case, the Harikrishna and Shakeel murder case, the Palar blast, and the Gopal Hosur case but convicted only seven of them.

On a petition filed by Abdul Kareem in 2000, the Supreme Court stayed the release of some of these TADA detenus in exchange for the release of the Kannada matinee idol, Rajkumar, who was kidnapped by Veerappan in July 2000. Mr. Kareem, who had been allowed to implead himself in the appeals after he alleged that the Karnataka Government had not conducted the prosecution case in a fair manner, had sought enhancement of the punishment awarded to the accused.

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