Hanging of Rajiv Gandhis killers postponed

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Hanging of Rajiv Gandhis killers postponed

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The hanging of Rajiv Gandhis killers has been postponed as they have filed an appeal.

30 August,2011 12:47 pm

The three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have moved the Madras high court challenging the rejection of their clemency pleas by President Pratibha Patil. The high court has postponed the hanging for nine weeks, according to Indian media reports. The counsel for the convicts contended that as 11 years have passed since the killing, while the convicts remained jailed all these years, it in unethical to hang them now. Earlier, Advocate N Chandrasekaran appeared on behalf of the three men - Murugan alias Sriharan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu. He made a mention about the matter before Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar.In his petition, Perarivalan - the only Indian citizen among the accused - sought for the Presidents order to be set aside and for the death sentence to be commuted. While the mercy petition was sent to the President on Apri 26, 2000, action was initiated on it only in August, 2011. He termed this an unwarranted, illegal and unconstitutional delay. He said he had filed mercy petitions again before the President and the governor of Tamil Nadu on August 27.The petition added that the President had failed to consider certain parameters while deciding on the mercy plea. He had been roped into this case under section 120B of the IPC and was associated with Sivarasan but was not directly involved in the assassination.The Indian Supreme Court had, in the case of Vijayan and Suseentharan, held that mere association should not be considered as a vital role played in the plot. The above ratio was not applied to him. The mercy petition was not placed before the council of ministers but only before the home ministry.While he has completed BCA, Perarivalan said he was now studying the last semester of MCA. Though the governor had commuted Nalinis sentence despite her having prior knowledge of the assassination, he did not commute Perarivalans sentence which was based solely on police confession and circumstantial evidence.The petition added that Ragothaman, chief investigating officer in the case, had said in a press interview in 2005 that a third, unidentified co-accused participated in the crime and that investigating authorities did not know till date the maker of the bomb.Pointing out that the date for hanging was fixed for September 9, a stay was sought restraining authorities from executing the death sentence. He also sought for a direction to quash the rejection of the clemency plea and for the death sentence to be commuted.