The President has rejected the clemency plea of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan and they will be hanged till they die on September 9.
It turned out to be a Black Friday for the three accused sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Authorities in Vellore Prison in Tamil Nadu have told the three accused, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, that they would be hanged till they die on the morning of September 9. Incidentally, the day they hang is also a Friday.
The process to hold their death sentences was set in motion on Friday with the Vellore Prison authorities receiving the communication from Rashtrapathi Bhavan that the President of India has rejected the clemency petition filed by Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, the three Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activists.
“Jail officials have received the communication from Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Now they will issue the Black Warrant which sets in motion the formalities to execute the court verdict,” a top Intelligence Bureau official told DNA. But Vellore Prison officials declined to comment.
The three convicts are hoping against hope that they may get a reprieve from the hangman’s noose. A source close to them told DNA that they would move the Madra High Court anytime from now challenging the President’s decision to decline clemency and hang them 11 years after they filed the clemency petition. They may approach chief minister Jayalalithaa with a plea to save them from the gallows.
Dr Subramanian Swamy, president, Janata Party and the former Union minister for Law and Justice, who oversaw the Special Investigation Team probe into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, said the three would have to march to the gallows and there was no way out for them. “The Supreme Court had pronounced the judgment and all their pleas were rejected in 1999 itself. They were supposed to hang on October 5, 1999, a date fixed by the prison authorities to implement the court order. But it was postponed because of the mercy petition filed by them,” said Dr Swamy. He said it was the end of the road for them now that the President has rejected the clemency plea.
He added that the Vajpayee government's decision to give clemency to Nalini, the fourth accused sentenced to death, was illegal.
Meanwhile, a top intelligence bureau official told DNA that Tamil chauvinist groups were getting ready to unleash disturbance and riots all over the state if the authorities hang the three LTTE activists. “They are organising street side meetings which attract hundreds of common people because of the anti-India rhetoric in their speeches. The reports we are getting from Tamil Nadu are not encouraging,” he said.
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