Pass resolution for clemency to Rajiv case convicts: M Karunanidhi

Continuing to plead for three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today asked the state cabinet to pass a resolution to press for clemency for them and said the Centre also should do 'its bit' in the matter.

"It is still not late. Don't just stop with passing a resolution in the Assembly. Convene the Cabinet and adopt a resolution (seeking their clemency)," he told the Jayalalithaa government.

Karunanidhi said his government had adopted a similar approach in the case of two death row convicts and former Naxalites, Thyagu and Kaliyaperumal.

Addressing a function to commemorate the birth anniversaries of Dravidian icons EVR Periyar and CN Annadurai besides his party's founding, Karunanidhi said the convicts -- Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan -- had spent nearly 20 years in prison for the former prime minister's killing.

Tamil Nadu Assembly had recently passed a resolution urging President Pratibha Patil to reconsider the mercy plea of the trio, which she had rejected earlier.

"Once such a resolution is forwarded to the governor who in turn sends it to the Centre, it should also come forward to save them. This is our plea and request," he said.

On a petition from the three convicts, the Madras High Court earlier this month stayed their execution for eight weeks.

Karunanidhi slammed those who had hailed Jayalalithaa after the Assembly resolution on clemency issue, saying the cabinet was yet to adopt a resolution.

Describing his party's April 13 Assembly poll loss as a historic defeat, Karunanidhi said many including himself had been surprised whether DMK had really lost the polls. However he was 'happy' that many who had voted for AIADMK were 'repenting' now.

On the spate of arrests of his senior party colleagues, most of them on landgrab charges, Karunanidhi said his party never foisted cases on opposition members when it was ruling the state.

"Did we arrest people? Did we foist cases? Did we harass them like they are doing now. But I am not blaming Jayalalithaa. (I wonder) is this the (behaviour of the) police that was under my supervision till recently," he said in an apparent reference to his holding Home portfolio as Chief Minister.

However, none can destroy DMK, which will only continue to grow, he said as he recalled how it had recovered from such similar situations in the past especially after the Rajiv Gandhi assassination when the then DMK Government was dismissed by the Centre.