The Supreme Court commuted
the death sentence of three men convicted of killing former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi to life in prison and left it to the Tamil Nadu government to
decide whether to release them by granting them remission. The court granted
relief to Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan agreeing that there had been an 11-year
delay on the Centre's part, in deciding on their mercy plea.
A bench headed by the Chief
Justice of India, P Sathasivam, also rejected the Centre's view that the
convicts did not deserve mercy. The Centre's lawyer, Attorney General Goolam
Vahanvati, had said there was "not a word of remorse" in the
convicts' petition for mercy. He said that, they were leading a disciplined
life, entertaining and educating inmates, so there is no agony, torture or
dehumanizing effect due to delay. The lawyer for the convicts argued that
"agony and torture need not be physical injuries."
On January 21, the Supreme
Court commuted the death sentences of 15 convicts, announcing that
"inordinate and inexplicable" delays in carrying out executions were
grounds for reducing their original punishment.
Santhan, Perarivalan and
Murugan were convicted in 1998 for Mr. Gandhi's assassination in 1991. Their mercy petition was sent to the President
of India, the last stage in the process of appeals, in 2000 and was rejected 11
years later. Their hanging was stayed in 2011 on the orders of the Madras High
Court.
Murugan's wife Nalini was
also sentenced to death but it was commuted to life on the intervention of
Rajiv Gandhi's widow Sonia Gandhi.
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