President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday rejected the mercy petition of Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik who raped and killed a three-year-old girl in Maharashtra’s Amrawati district on March 2, 2007.
With this, Mr. Mukherjee has signed 22 death warrants involving 29 people in last two years of his Presidency, besides commuting sentence to life imprisonment in one case. Those sent to gallows include Mumbai attack convict Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, who was found guilty in Parliament attack case.
In Wasnik’s case, the President agreed with the advice of Home Ministry and rejected his mercy plea on July 31. The President has already rejected five petitions, including that of Nithari serial killer Surinder Koli last month.
The Supreme Court Bench comprising justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar held on February 29, 2012 that Wasnik deserved capital punishment as he was a married man of 31 years who committed the offence after luring the girl by offering her biscuits.
