The Hindu : Plea against acquittal of TADA accused rejected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 11, 2003

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Plea against acquittal of TADA accused rejected

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 10. The Supreme Court has rejected the two appeals filed by the Karnataka Government — one challenging the acquittal of 121 accused in the four TADA cases involving forest brigand Veerappan and the other seeking imposition of death penalty on five persons, sentenced to life imprisonment by the Mysore TADA court.

A three-judge Bench, comprising Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi and Justice G.P. Mathur, dismissed both the appeals at the admission stage on the ground that they were filed after an inordinate delay of 358 days after the statutory period of filing.

The Bench rejected the plea of the Karnataka counsel to condone the delay and dismissed the two special leave petitions directed against the judgment of the Mysore TADA court dated September 29, 2001.

The TADA court had acquitted 121 accused in four different cases and awarded life imprisonment to the remaining five persons. The cases pertained to murder of several police officials by Veerappan and his gang near M.M. Hills on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.

After the kidnap of Rajkumar, Veerappan had demanded the release of the TADA accused and even as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were taking steps for securing their release, the Supreme Court had stalled their release.

Subsequently, the TADA court acquitted 121 of the 126 accused and sentenced five to life imprisonment.

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