Rajiv assassination case
SC no to review death penalty

NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI, UNI) — Gallows await four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case with the Supreme Court today rejecting their petitions seeking review of an earlier judgement confirming the death penalty to them.

A three-Judge Bench comprising Justice K T Thomas, Justice D P Wadhwa and Justice S S M Quadri by 2-1 majority dismissed the petitions filed by Nalini, her husband Murugan alias Sriharan, Suthenthiraja alias Santhan and G Periaravalan alias Arivu, for review of the May 11 judgement of the court.

The court had confirmed death penalty on four, commuted the capital punishment to life imprisonment for three and acquitted 19 others from the assassination case. A designated court at Poonamalee had awarded death sentence to all 26.

While Nalini is an Indian Tamil, the other four are LTTE activists from Sri Lanka who participated in a conspiracy masterminded by LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran to kill former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated on May 21, 1991, by a human bomb, Dhanu, minutes before addressing an election rally at Sriperambadur.

Justice Wadhwa and Justice Quadri dismissed all the review petitions. Justice Thomas agreed with the two judges on three accused but said Nalini’s death penalty deserved to be commuted to life imprisonment.

The court by a unanimous decision rejected a CBI petition seeking review of discharge of all 26 accused under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

In the May 11 order too, Justice Thomas was the lone voice which advocated awarding of life imprisonment to Nalini saying she was a woman with a small child.

Justice Thomas today said in a three-judge Bench dealing with a death penalty case, if one of the judges commuted the capital punishment to life imprisonment then it was fit case for review of the award of the extreme punishment.

He, however, hastened to add that it was not his intention to say that a minority view should prevail on the majority.

Those whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the court on May 11 were Robert Payas, Jayakumar and P Ravichandran.

Those acquitted of the involvement in the conspiracy were: S Shanmugavadivelu, Shankar, Vijayananda, Shivaruban, Athirai, Kanakasabhapathy, Shanti, S Vijayan, Selvalaxmi, Suseendran, Irumborai, Bhagyanathan, Padma, Subha Sundaram, Dhanasekharan, Rangan, Vicky, alias Vigneswar, Ranganathan.

While commuting the death sentence of Nalini to life imprisonment, Justice Thomas had in the May 11 judgement observed that "as the little child’s father Murugan, who had married Nalini in prison, was awarded death sentence, the mother (Nalini) should be saved not to make the child an orphan."

CHENNAI: The committee for the legal defence of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will appeal for presidential clemency for the four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

This comes in the wake of Friday's Supreme Court verdict rejecting their petitions seeking review of the death sentences earlier awarded to them by a special court here.

The four condemned prisoners were: Santhan, Nalini, her husband Murugan and Perarivalan, alias Arivu.

Committee convenor and Tamil Desiya Iyakkam president Pazha Nedumaran said the committee had started collecting thousands of signatures in the mercy petitions which would be handed over to President K R Narayanan in the next 10 days.

He said the committee would also contact the newly-elected members of Parliament cutting across party lines and intellectuals and seek their support for the clemency plea.

Mr Nedumaran said the committee was also contacting human rights organisations in various states in this regard. "These organisations would send separate mercy petitions to the President," he added.