Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed serial rapist Umesh Reddy’s plea for commuting the death penalty awarded to him to life sentence after his mercy petition was rejected by the President in 2012.
A division bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur dismissed the petition.
Reddy had cited inordinate delay in considering his plea for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment.
The bench granted him six weeks’ time challenge the order in the apex court.
Reddy, a constable in the CRPF, who was posted in Jammu and Kashmir and then in the District Armed Reserve in Karnataka, is facing at least 21 rape and murder cases. He was arrested on March 2, 1998 in connection with the rape and murder of a widow in February that year and sentenced to death by a lower court in 2006. Both the High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the lower court order.
