Rajiv Gandhi assassination case: Supreme Court verdict on convicts' plea today

The Supreme Court will decide the fate of three death row convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case today.

The court will pronounce its verdict on their plea for commutation of their sentence to life imprisonment on ground of delay in deciding their mercy plea.

The judgement will be delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam.

The Centre has opposed the plea by arguing that the convicts did not go through torture, agony and dehumanising experience during pendency of the mercy pleas.

The Centre earlier told the apex court that it is not a fit case for commuting death sentence.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber at an election rally in Sriperumbedur on May 21, 1991. Fourteen other people also lost their lives in that blast.

In 1999, the three convicts - Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan - were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for being part of the group that conspired to kill Gandhi.

Their mercy petition was sent to the President of India, the last stage in the process of appeals, in 2000 and was rejected 11 years later. Their hanging was stayed in 2011 on the orders of the Madras High Court.