President rejects mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi’s murderers

Mtoday news / NDTV

New Delhi, August 11:  President Pratibha PatIl has rejected the mercy pleas of three men convicted for the 1991 assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, paving the way for their execution.

 

"The rejection (of the clemency petitions) happened last week after the president returned from a foreign tour," presidential spokeswoman Archana Datta.

The appeal sent to President Pratibha Patil by the three - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were their last hope.

The men, who belonged to Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militant group, are charged with plotting the May 21, 1991 killing of Mr Gandhi by a woman suicide bomber.

The Supreme Court in 2000 confirmed the death sentences of the three men, but commuted the capital punishment to life in prison for Nalini Sriharan, an Indian Tamil.

The men had sought a presidential pardon after the top court’s verdict.

A woman with explosives strapped to her body blew herself up, killing Gandhi instantly while he was on an election tour in the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur.

The LTTE, wiped out by Sri Lankan forces following a bloody offensive by government troops on the island in 2009, had always denied its hand in Mr Gandhi’s assassination.