16 April 2004 :

Gnanaprakasham, Simon, M. Madaiah and Bilavendra, four Indians due to be hanged got a reprieve as the president had not ruled on an appeal against the execution, police said. "The hanging has been postponed indefinitely," said Sunil Agarwal, police chief of Belgaum in southern Karnataka state where the men were jailed. "A decision was taken that since the mercy petition is pending with the president they will not be hanged," he said. The men had been sentenced to death in January 2004 after being convicted over a 1993 landmine blast masterminded by India's most wanted bandit, Muniswamy Veerappan, which killed 21 people. The chief of the South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, a human rights group that opposed capital punishment, said the Indian president rarely gave the go-ahead to hang convicts. "The last presidential consent given was more than 10 years ago," said Ashok Mathews Philip.