NEW DELHI: Acting swiftly on 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case convict Ajmal Amir Kasab's mercy petition, the Union home ministry has rejected his plea of commuting death penalty and sent the file to President Pranab Mukherjee for taking the final decision.
In an unprecedented move, the home ministry -- which took years in sending mercy petition files of other convicts on death row -- has sent Kasab's file to Rashtrapati Bhavan within three weeks of getting the note of rejection from Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayan.
"Since the state government and the governor had already rejected Kasab's mercy petition, the home ministry need not send it again to state. It simply processed it at its end taking state's advice and sent it to the President for taking final call", said a senior home ministry official.
The official said it was now up to the President to take a decision.
Source: The Times of India, October 23, 2012