Simon, Gnanaprakash, Madaiah and Bilavendra were convicted of killing 22 persons in landmine blasts in Palar.
In his writ petition, filed on behalf of the convicts, Shamik Narain sought commutation of their death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of an inordinate nine-year delay in disposal of their mercy petitions.
On Saturday, the petitioners' lawyers were prevented from meeting the convicts inside Hindalga jail and wre also not allowed to obtain their signatures on an affidavit that had to be filed in support of a writ petition proposed to be filed in the Karnataka High Court in Bangalore.
The prison authorities informed the lawyers that they had received instructions from the Chief Secretary not to allow anybody to meet the convicts. Outside the jail, the lawyers were informed by various persons that some prisoners were going to be executed on Sunday morning and hence nobody would be allowed to meet them.
They were also told that gallows were being prepared. Shamik Narain said: “The Karnataka Prison Manual and Rules explicitly provide that execution of the death sentence shall be scheduled [for] not earlier than 14 days from the date of receipt of rejection of the mercy petitions.
“Therefore, since the convicts were informed of the rejection of their mercy petitions only on the evening of February 12, their executions cannot be scheduled before February 26.”
