New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed two appeals filed by the Karnataka
government - one for imposition of death penalty on five persons convicted for
killing of police official Harikrishna by Veerappan gang and the other challenging
acquittal of over 100 accused by a Terrorist and Disruptive Act (TADA) court.
A three-judge Bench headed by Justice S Rajendra Babu dismissed both the appeals in
the admission stage saying there had been an inordinate delay of 358 days in their
filing. The statutory period of limitation provides that appeals should be filed
within 90 days.
Superintendent of police Harikrishna and several other policemen were killed by
Veerappan and his gang after luring them to a location on M M Hills on the Karnataka-
Tamil Nadu border.
During the kidnapping of Karnataka matinee idol Rajkumar, Veerappan had demanded
release of all persons facing trial in the Harikrishna murder case on bail and the
governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had initiated the process to facilitate
grant of bail to them by the TADA court.
However, on the appeal filed by Abdul Karim, father of one of the policeman killed
along with Harikrishna, the Supreme Court had stalled their release.
The TADA court had in January last convicted five persons and awarded them life
sentence. It had acquitted the other 117 accused for want of evidence.
PTI
