Today, On 24th January, The Centre informed the Supreme Court that Shraddananda is seeking a direction for the President to decide on his mercy plea. The plea is related to his conviction, and the petitioner is requesting the President’s intervention. The Centre explained this during a virtual hearing in the apex court. The Court will now consider the matter for further proceedings.
New Delhi: The Centre informed the Supreme Court that the plea of Swamy Shraddananda, who has been incarcerated for over 30 years for his wife’s murder, effectively seeks a directive for the President to decide on his mercy petition.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih was hearing the petition filed by the 84-year-old Shraddananda, also known as Murali Manohar Mishra, requesting that authorities address his mercy plea submitted to the President in December 2023.
Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, representing the Centre, sought clarification on the plea and remarked,
“However, the prayer is virtually seeking a direction to the President to do it. Whether such a prayer could be considered at all? Kindly see the prayer.”
Advocate Varun Thakur, representing Shraddananda, emphasized that the petitioner has been in jail for over three decades and is suffering from various ailments.
The bench responded,
“You (Shraddananda) must thank this court that you were saved that time,”
And scheduled the next hearing for two weeks later.
Shraddananda’s case dates back to a couple that married in April 1986, but Shakereh, his wife, mysteriously disappeared in May 1991. The Supreme Court noted that in March 1994, the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru took over the investigation into her disappearance, leading to Shraddananda’s confession of her murder.
In his recent plea to the Supreme Court, Shraddananda referenced the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, noting that the convicts in that case received parole and furlough during their imprisonment and were eventually released after 27 years.
He highlighted an order from the Supreme Court dated October 23 of last year regarding his review petition, which stated that powers exercised by the President under Article 72 and by the Governor under Article 161 remain applicable even when life sentences are imposed as a substitute for the death penalty. Articles 72 and 161 confer the powers of the President and the Governor to grant pardons and to suspend, remit, or commute sentences in specific cases.
Shraddananda mentioned that he filed a mercy petition in December 2023, which is still pending.
Requesting a direction for authorities to decide on his mercy petition, the plea stated,
“The petitioner has been in jail for 30 years without a single day of parole or any remission,”
In 2005, a trial court convicted Shraddananda and sentenced him to death, a sentence that the Karnataka High Court confirmed in September of the same year.
Although a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, opinions on sentencing differed; one judge insisted he should remain imprisoned for life, while the other argued he deserved the death penalty.
Ultimately, on July 22, 2008, a three-judge bench commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, ordering that he should not be released for the rest of his life.