New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) With mercy pleas of sandalwood

smuggler Veerapan's four associates, on death row in a 1993 blast case, rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress today dismissed contentions that decisions to hang convicts are being taken due to political reasons. "Where is the UPA or Congress in the decision on who should be hanged or not? We never take these decisions. These are not political decisions," party spokesperson P C Chacko told reporters here. He said when all the options are over, the law takes its own course and it is the decision of the courts. "Using it (death sentence) for political purposes is not the Congress culture," he said in response to questions on the recent rejections of the mercy pleas by the President. Balamurugan, a human rights activist and also general secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties in Tamil Nadu, said that the family members received information from Belgaum prison authorities that the mercy petitions of the four have been rejected by the president. He said the families of the four death row convicts, lodged in Belgaum jail, had informed him about the decision, which comes days after rejection of the mercy plea and hanging of Afzal Guru in the Parliament attack case. Gnanaprakash, Simon, 'Meesai' Madaian and Pilavendran were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004 in connection with the landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993, carried out by the Veerappan gang, in which 22 police personnel were killed. Asked about the strong remarks by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over Guru's hanging, Chacko said, "Even to the worst enemies, we give maximum time."