The Union home ministry may give special treatment to 26/11 Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab’s mercy petition to pave way for the early execution of his death sentence.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has received a communication from Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayan rejecting the mercy plea of Kasab, whose case becomes the fourth entry in the home ministry’s list of pending mercy petitions.
Eleven mercy petitions are already pending with President Pra-nab Mukherjee, including that of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru. According to the fresh MHA list, the mercy petitions of Balwant Singh Rajo-ana, Maganlal of Madh-ya Pradesh and B.A. Umesh Reddy of Karna-taka precede Kasab’s petition. Mr Shinde, who has said a decision on Kasab’s mercy plea will be taken as early as possible, may now have to tweak the chronological procedure introduced by his predecessor, Mr P. Chidamb-aram, of following a “queue system” in disposing of the oldest pe-nding cases first. Going by set procedure, Mr Shinde may have to clear the pending mercy pleas first.
But a top government official said Mr Shinde may treat Kasab’s case separately. The Centre does not want Kasab’s case to lie pending for years.