Mangalorean's mercy petition pending before Prez

Mangalore, Feb 18: President of India Pranab Mukherjee has given nod to the execution of two after he became the first citizen of the nation.

However, amidst four of Veerappan's close aides counting days for their execution, one more person named Praveen from Vamanjoor in Mangalore too has been given death sentence but it is now a thing to wait and watch if he will escape the punishment or not. About 19 years ago Praveen killed his aunt and three others. In this regard, High Court of Karnataka pronounced death sentence to him. He is presently in Belagavi Hindalaga jail.

Praveen hailing from Uppinangady was living with his paternal aunt Appi Sherigarthi, at Vamanjoor and was working from home. He had married a lady from Thokkottu. Praveen was on a bid to make fast and easy money and had hence fallen prey to lottery. In this craze he had already lost lot of money and had even made huge debts. While Praveen's situation had become pathetic,  Appi's daughter and family had come to live with Appi from abroad. Desperate to get out of financial crunch, on February 23, 1994, Praveen hacked  Appi, her daughter Shakaunthala, son Govind and granddaughter Deepika to death using a pick-axe. He had assumed that he would avail lot of money and gold from his cousins who had just landed from abroad. For about a week, there was no clue about who could have done the heinous crime.

However, acting on a small piece of information, rural police station the then head Constable Narayan Bydoor tracked down Praveen, who completely mislead the police initially. However, the police brisked up their operation under the team led by Inspector Papaiah. After hearing all the arguments, the District Sessions Court pronounced death sentence to Praveen. Turning down his plea, even the High Court in 2002 upheld the district court's verdict.

Praveen moved to Supreme Court. Even Apex Court on October 15, 2003 said that the accused should be given death sentence.  After this, Praveen had filed a mercy petition before the former president of India Prathibha Patil. The same plea is now pending before Pranab Mukherjee. With this one has to wait and watch what Praveen has in store for him.

Went missing

Praveen who was nabbed by the cops within one week of the killings had managed escape while he was being brought to Mangalore from Belagavi jail. He had gone missing for four years after that! During this period, Appi's son Seetharam Saphalya had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to whoever gave information on Praveen's whereabouts. Soon, the cops got the information that Praveen has been living in Goa after marrying a lady from there. The cops soon rushed to Goa and nabbed him there in 1999.