No death sentence for Rajiv Gandhi’s killers: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case and sentenced them to life in prison. A bench led by Chief Justice P Sathasivam held there was an unreasonable and inordinate delay in deciding their mercy petitions, which remained pending for 11 years.

The court also said that it was not for the convicts to bring forth the evidence of their suffering and agonising affects on their body and mind but the duty was rather cas upon the executive to exercise its powers within a reasonable time. The court urged the government to render proper advise to the President for expeditious disposal of clemency petitions in future. The bench also junked Attorney General?s argument that the convicts ?enjoyed in prison? and had a ?meaningful prison social life.?

Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, had sought commutation of their death sentences, questioning the 11-year-long delay by the President in disposal of their mercy pleas. They maintained there was unexplained delay in deciding their mercy pleas.

The government however had opposed their plea, claiming that the trio ?enjoyed? and had a ?meaningful life? in jail during the last two decades.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati had said that the prolonged incarceration did not have a ?de-humanising? effect on them and that they were ?singing and not swinging between life and death.?

The AG agreed there was a delay in deciding their mercy plea but contended that it was not unreasonable, unexplainable and unconscionable, warranting commutation of death penalty. He referred to their mercy petitions before the President wherein they said they were ?morally justified? in killing the former Prime Minister.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

In 1998, a court sentenced 26 people to death in the case. However, when the case reached the Supreme Court in 2000, capital punishment was confirmed only for four ? Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan. Nalini?s death penalty was commuted to life term by the Tamil Nadu Governor in 2000 following a recommendation by the state cabinet and a public appeal by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The mercy petitions of the other three were rejected in 2011 by then President Pratibha Patil, 11 years after the apex court confirmed their sentence. They moved the SC again, seeking commutation on the ground of this delay.