BELGAUM, August 21: The family members of Shivu Munishetty and Jadeswamy Rangashetty, death row convicts whose mercy petitions were rejected by the President last week, have pinned their hopes on the Supreme Court with a prayer for mercy, even as the writ petition filed on their behalf seeking commutation of death penalty into life imprisonment is coming up before the court on Wednesday.
‘They are innocent’
Their family members still feel that Shivu and Jadeswamy are innocent and were “fixed by local politicians” hostile to them in a property dispute.
They said Jadeswamy was picked up by the police while he was having lunch at home and Shivu from the bus-stop. They said that they do not believe in the evidence collected by the police.
As many as 30 relatives from Badarayanahalli in Kollegal taluk of Chamarajanagar arrived here to meet the two convicts at the Hindalga Central Prison on Tuesday.
The party included Chellamma Munishetty, Shivu’s mother, and three sisters who brought him rakhis, and Shivashankaramma, wife of Jadeswamy, her mother, Rangamma Rangashetty, and sister-in-law Nagamma.
After a meeting that lasted an hour, Shivu and Jadeswamy were quoted as saying that they were being punished for an offence that they did not commit.
“Yella devara ichhe” (all God’s will), they told their relatives, but did not show any sign of disappointment or fear of death. Meanwhile, the jail authorities have made all arrangements to carry out the execution.
