President rejects mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi's assassins

New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) Indian President Pratibha Patil
has rejected the clemency petitions of three killers of Rajiv
Gandhi whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme
Court in 2000.
The apex court had sentenced members of the banned
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) Murugan, Santhan,
Perarivalan and Nalini to death in 1999 for the assassination
of the former Prime Minister in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
A Rasthrapati Bhavan spokesperson said the clemency
petitions of all three accused were turned down by the
President last week.
The apex court had confirmed the death sentence of
Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan while commuting Nalini's
sentence to life imprisonment.
The trio, charged with criminal conspiracy and execution
of the suicide attack plot, had filed mercy petition before
the President after confirmation of sentence by the apex
court.
The Home Ministry had sent its opinion on June 21, 2005
which was called back for review on February 23, 2011 and was
re-submitted to the President on March 8 this year.
Earlier, in May, the President had rejected mercy
petitions of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar of Punjab and Mahendra
Nath Das of Assam following the recommendations from the Union
Home Ministry.
Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on
August 25, 2001, for plotting terror attacks on Punjab SSP
Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and the then Youth Congress
president M S Bitta in 1993. Das was found guilty of murdering
one Hara Kanta Das.