The Supreme Court on Saturday refused to hear a petition by four aides of late forest brigand Veerappan seeking stay on the execution of their death sentence.
The four men were reported to be executed on Sunday after their mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee last week.
Stating that there was no proof that the execution would be upheld on Sunday, the Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir refused to hear on the plea.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves who approached Kabir said that the CJI did not hear the matter on Saturday also said that there was no proof that execution will take place, adding that the matter is expected to be taken up for hearing in due course.
Gonsalves along with advocate Samik Narain said they approached the apex court after they heard the rumours that the death sentence of all four will be carried out on Sunday.
The advocates said that they will approach the court in connection with the matter on Monday. "Now we are hoping that the execution will not take place tomorrow (Sunday)," they told PTI.
The four associates of Veerapan who are facing the death penalty are Gnanprakasham,late forest brigand's elder brother , Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran.
The TADA court in Mysore had awarded life imprisonment to all four in connection to the 1993 Palar landmine blast in which 22 policemen were killed. The Karnataka government filed a petition against the verdict in Supreme court demanding capital punishment for the accused.
In January 2004, a division bench headed by Justice YK Sabharwal and Justice BN Agrawal ruled in favour of the state government and sentenced the four to death. The accused had submitted a mercy petition to the president the same year.
After being elected to the nation's top post, Pranab rejected the mercy plea of Ajmal Kasab, the sole Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist captured alive in the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Kasab was executed on 21 November, 2012 in Yerawada central prison. Afzal Guru was the next high-profile convict to be sent to the gallows. He was executed on 9 February, 2013 in Tihar Jail.
