ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

SC rejects plea of Rajiv case convicts

The Supreme Court today dismissed petitions by the four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking review of the court's earlier judgements confirming the death sentence awarded to them by a Madras special court.

The three-judge bench passed the order by a majority of two to one.

While the majority judgements were delivered by Justices D P Wadhwa and S S M Qadri, the presiding judge K P Thomas dissented with them, observing that Nalini, being the lone female convict having a baby, should be awarded life imprisonment.

The court by a unanimous verdict also dismissed a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation, seeking review of that portion of the judgements by which all the 26 accused in the case were acquitted of the charges against them under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.

The court with the same majority had on May 11 this year confirmed the death sentence of four of the accused -- Santhan, Nalini, her husband Murugan and Perarivalan alias Arivu -- and awarded life imprisonment to three others. It had acquitted the remaining 19 of the murder charge.

The three accused who were given life imprisonment were Robert Payas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.

The committee for the legal defence of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will meanwhile appeal for presidential clemency for the four condemned prisoners.

Committee convener and Tamil Desiya Iyakkam president Pazha Nedumaran said the committee had started collecting thousands of signatures in the mercy petitions which would be handed over to President K R Narayanan in the next ten days.

He said the committee would also contact newly-elected members of Parliament cutting across party lines and intellectuals and seek their support for the clemency plea.

Nedumaran said the committee was also contacting human rights organisations in various states in this regard. These organisations would send separate mercy petitions to the President, he added.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report