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Mann, rights groups seek clemency for Rajiv's killers

The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and six civil and human rights organisations have appealed to President K R Narayanan to grant clemency to the four accused awarded the death penalty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Their plea: capital punishment violates human rights as well as the dignity and sanctity of human life.

SAD-A president Simranjit Singh Mann, MP, urged in a statement that the capital punishment awarded to the assassins be commuted to life imprisonment as the death penalty is no deterrent for crime and amounts to a vengeful act on behalf of the State.

India should not ignore the international opinion built up against the death penalty, which has already been abolished by the member-states of the European Union, he said.

Mann pointed out that an appeal by Sikh politicians for clemency for Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha in the General A S Vaidya assassination case a few years ago did not get the attention it deserved.

The designated TADA court has issued the death warrants and fixed November 5 for the execution of the death sentence, which has already been confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The human rights organisations pointed out that the ever-present possibility of human error becomes fatal in the case of capital punishment.

The Supreme Court acquitted 19 of the 26 persons convicted and sentenced to death by the TADA court from the charges of conspiracy to murder Rajiv Gandhi, they said, and argued that this fact itself was a clear indication of the fallibility of human judgement. Besides, they said, if Nalini, the only woman among the convicts, is executed, her child would be orphaned.

The organisations also said there is a global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty as it "does not serve any social, constitutional or penal purpose".

Signatories to the joint statement were Harish Dhawan (People's Union for Democratic Rights), N D Pancholi (Citizens for Democracy), Arbindo Ghosh (People's Rights Organisation), Y P Chhibber (People's Union for Civil Liberties), Tejinder Ahuja (Human Rights Trust) and Justice Mehrotra (People's Union for Civil Liberties, Delhi unit).

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Governor rejects clemency petition

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