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Death sentence for 26 in Rajiv killing case stayed

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Terrorist and Disprutive Activities (Prevention) Act court order, sentencing 26 accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to death.

The interim order was passed by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice M M Punchi, Justices K Venkataswamy and B N Kripal while admitting appeals against the impugned January 28 judgment.

The designated Judge V Navaneethan had sentenced to death S Nalini and 25 others under section 120-d and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, Passport Act, Foreigners Act, Wireless and Telegraph Act and TADA, for conspiring to kill the former prime minister.

The order of the designated court was assailed before the apex court on the following grounds:

* the court failed to note there was no evidence where the belt bomb was prepared and how it was brought to India.
* the court was wrong in holding that mere working for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam was sufficient to draw inference that the accused knew about the conspiracy.
* the court was wrong in holding that mere association with the other accused was sufficient to draw inference that even the accused knew of the main conspiracy.
* the court was wrong on relying upon the confessional statements of the accused under section 15 of the TADA.
* the court failed to note the confessioanl statements were recorded by police when the accused were in police custody and there was no atmosphere provided to them for recording confessional statements.
* the court was wrong in holding that mere association with the other accused was sufficient to hold that all of them had a common intention and were aware of the larger conspiracy.

The bench directed that the original records of the case, including several thousand pages of statements by the witnesses in Tamil, be translated into English within two months. It requested the Madras high court to undertake the translation work immediately.

The translated records should be certified by a senior judicial official of the high court to ensure that the authenticity of the versions were not tempered with.

The hearing on the appeal, the bench said, would start immediately after the English translation was ready.

Rajiv Gandhi, along with 14 others, was killed in an explosion of a female human bomb on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur, 30 kilometres from Madras.

UNI

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