Rajiv assassination: SC rejects plea against relief to convicts

The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a central government plea seeking recall of the the verdict by which it had commuted to life the death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh rejected the centre's plea after considering it in chamber.

After considering the centre's plea seeking recall of its verdict, the bench, in a brief order said: "We have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petition and the same is accordingly dismissed."

The bench Feb 18 commuted the death sentence of three conspirators in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment, citing its Jan 21 judgment.

The three convicts are V. Sriharan alias Murugan, A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu and T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan, currently lodged in Tamil Nadu's Vellore prison. They had sought commutation of their death sentences due to the long delay in deciding their mercy petitions.

The apex court in its Jan 21 judgment held that inordinate, unexplained and unreasonable delay in deciding the mercy petition of the death row convicts was a ground for commutation of death to life imprisonment.

Rajiv Gandhi, who was the prime minister 1984-89, was killed by Dhanu, a Sri Lankan suicide bomber from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, at an election rally in Sriperumbudur near Chennai May 21, 1991.

In 1998, all the 26 accused in the case were sentenced to death by a special trial court.

In 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences of four - Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan and Nalini - while the capital punishment to the others was reduced to varying terms of imprisonment.