President rejects mercy plea of death row convict

President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy plea of death row convict Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, who had murdered his wife and daughter.

President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy plea of death row convict Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, who had murdered his wife and daughter.

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According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement, the President's secretariat rejected Natikar's mercy plea on January 4.

Natikar is presently lodged in central prison at Belgaum in Karnataka.

This is the second mercy petition the president has rejected after assuming office in July last year.

On November 5 last year, the President rejected the mercy petition of Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab, who was then hanged in Yerawada jail in Pune, Maharashtra on November 21.

On November 15, the President commuted a death row convict's death sentence to life imprisonment.

According to the statement, Atbir was sentenced to death by a sessions court in 2004 for the murder of his stepmother, step sister and step brother over a property dispute in 1996. The decision was upheld by the high court and Supreme Court. He had then appealed to the President.

The President on November 15 commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.