Where Do We Go Now?

IN THE SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court yesterday confirmed the death sentence on main accused Nalini and three others in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and turned the extreme penalty to life imprisonment in the case of three others. All the 19 others who had appealed against the death sentence passed by the special TADA judge in Chennai escaped the noose.

The three-judge bench differed on the death penalty on Nalini, who had accompanied Dhanu, the human bomb who killed the former Prime Minister and several others at Sriperumbadur, near Chennai, in 1991. Nalini lost her plea for life by 2:1. Justice K T Thomas, who voted in her favour, pointed out that she had a child by Murugan who is also to be hanged and therefore should be spared so that the child did not become an orphan.

Others whose death penalties were confirmed are Santhan and Arivu. The death sentences passed on Robert, Jayakumar and Ravichandran were commuted to life imprisonment. All of them were convicted for murder and conspiracy. Those who were freed were charged under TADA, Arms Act, Explosives Act and other criminal laws.

Justice Thomas, Justice D P Wadhwa and Justice S S M Quadri differed on whether Nalini's case fell in the "rarest of rare" categ