New Delhi, February 20
The Supreme Court today linked the fate of slain sandalwood smuggler Veerappan’s four aides, sentenced to death for killing 22 police personnel in a landmine blast in 1993, to a pending SC judgment in a case relating to Devender Pal Singh Bhullar.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir put on hold the execution of the four aides for six weeks, expressing the hope that the verdict in the Bhullar case would be delivered by then.

The Bench, which included Justices AR Dave and Vikramajit Sen, said since the cases of the four and of Bhullar were similar it would be better to wait for the verdict on Bhullar’s plea. Bhullar has pleaded for commuting to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to him for the September 10, 1993 bomb attack on the then Youth Congress president MS Bitta.

Bhullar pleaded that he should be spared from the gallows as he had virtually undergone life sentence due to the long delay in the rejection of his mercy plea. Veerappan’s associates -- his elder brother Gnanaprakash, Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran -- have also cited the long delay in the rejection of their mercy pleas for seeking commutation of their death penalty. On April 19, 2012, the Bench comprising Justices Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhaya had reserved its judgment on Bhullar’s petition. The Bench is also hearing similar pleas by three other death row convicts involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu during the Lok Sabha election campaign in 1991.