The Madras High Court today stayed the execution of the death sentence of the three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case by eight weeks. The three convicts, Murugan alias Sriharan, Santhan and Perarivalan alias Arivu are to face the gallows on September 9.
The stay follows their appeal for mercy seeking commutation of the death sentence into life imprisonment. The High Court and the Tamil Nadu Government will file counter affidavits in the clemency seeking case with in the stay period.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Assembly also adopted a resolution introduced by Chief Minister J Jayalalitha requesting the President of India to reconsider the clemency petition and commute their death sentence into life sentence.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani argued on behalf of the convicts that the President took more than 11 years to reject their mercy petitions and because of that they are eligible for mercy.
Students held rallies on Monday in several towns and cities of Tamil Nadu opposing the execution of death sentence to Rajiv killers.
The former prime minister was assassinated by a suicide squad of Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorists on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during the Lok Sabha election campaign.
