Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Date set for hanging

[samv]

Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Date set for hanging

26 August 2011

Three men convicted in connection with the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi are to be hanged on 9 September, officials say.

They will be hanged in the early hours of the morning, an official at the prison where they are being held in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu said.

The move comes after India's president rejected mercy pleas from the men known as Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.

The killing of Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber shocked India.

All three of the condemned men were members of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers militant group and were convicted of plotting the assassination. Murugan and Santhan are from Sri Lanka and Perarivalan is an Indian Tamil.

In 2006, the Tamil Tigers expressed "regret" for the murder.

The Supreme Court in 1999 confirmed the death sentences of the three men, but commuted capital punishment to life imprisonment for Nalini Sriharan, an Indian Tamil woman married to Murugan who was also convicted in connection with the assassination.

"The three convicts are personally informed that today that they will be hanged," Mr Pugazendhi, a lawyer representing the three men, told the BBC Tamil service.

He said they had expected the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state to make a personal intervention.

"As there is no sign regarding political intervention, we are exploring other legal options," he said.

The mother of Perarivalan also told BBC Tamil that he denied the charges and said that she believed the judgement was based on a forced confession.

The death penalty is rare in India. The last execution was in 2004 when a 41-year-old former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.

BBC News - Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Date set for hanging

 

[ashokdeiva]

I PERSONALY REGREST THE DECESSION OF THE PRESIDENT TO SQUASH THE MERCY PEAL BY THE THREE, THEY HAD ALREADY SERVERD 20 YEARS IN JAIL AND NOW YOU INFORM THEM THEY ARE ABOUT TO BE HANGED, THE PRESIDENT HAD NO MERCY, THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT ON THE OTHER HAND HAS PROVED THE GUILT OF THE THREE LONG BACK, WHY DID THEY NOT EXECUTE THEM EARLY, WHY SHOULD HAVE THEY WATED THE 20 YEARS IN JAIL.

 

[Kazhugu]

problems have already started to surface in tamil nadu with various student associations, film industry people, lawyer associations opposing the hanging....


but i as a tamil say those guys must be hanged, NOT FOR KILLING RAJIV (that bast***d deserved to die) but because along with rajiv other innocent,common people died and for their sake these three must be hanged...also then other regions will start creating problems if these three are not hanged..

p.s.:even if they are hanged i will not see them as criminals...they sacrificed themselves to the cause.

 

[Skyline]

Death penalty is really happening in India? Will they actually hang them?

I'm against death penalty...

 

[Kazhugu]

I'm against death penalty...

what do you think about lankan soldiers killing surrendering ltte men...? that is also death penalty...

 

[Skyline]

what do you think about lankan soldiers killing surrendering ltte men...? that is also death penalty...

Most of surrendered LTTE carders are back in to normal life after rehabilitation programs.
If someone act like that it's not polite!

 

[samv]

what do you think about lankan soldiers killing surrendering ltte men...? that is also death penalty...

The Sri Lankan army should have taken out more LTTE cadres in my opinion.

The LTTE executed almost every SL soldier it captured.

It's regrettable that the SL government has taken a decision to "rehabilitate" LTTE cadres and release them back into society. A bad decision that they are going to rue later on down the track.

In my opinion all LTTE cadres should be behind bars -- or given the death penalty.

 

[Kazhugu]

Most of surrendered LTTE carders are back in to normal life after rehabilitation programs.
If someone act like that it's not polite!

that is what the lankan govt would want us to believe.....anyway coming back to topic...these three must be hanged... because law must take its course...but they die martyrs....

 

[samv]

that is what the lankan govt would want us to believe.....anyway coming back to topic...these three must be hanged... because law must take its course...but they die martyrs....

Maybe for Tamil extremists.

At least in Sri Lanka they got their comeuppance.

I hope the Indian government does hang them as an example.

 

[samv]

Tamil Nadu will secede if Rajiv Gandhi assassins are hanged: Vaiko

Vaiko, general secretary, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and a popular Tamil politician has warned the Union government that Tamil Nadu would soon secede from the Union of India.

"If Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case are executed as per the court order, it will jeopardise Indian unity. When the 100th anniversary of the Independence Day will be celebrated on 2047, Tamil Nadu would not be a part of India,” thundered Vaiko while addressing a meeting held late on Monday night to express solidarity with those sentenced to death in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The meeting which was addressed by leaders of various Tamil chauvinist outfits asked Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to take steps to save the lives of Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, the three Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) activists whose clemency petition was rejected by President Pratibha Patil earlier this month.

Vaiko said it was possible for Jayalalithaa to save the three LTTE convicts invoking sections 161 and 72 of the Indian Constitution. Though the government of India had fixed October 5, 1999 as the day for hanging the three as per the Supreme Court verdict, it was postponed because of the clemency petition filed by them.

The speakers vied with one another to spit venom on India as well as the Constitution. While P Maniarasan, TDPK, wanted the Indian government to remove the Ashok Chakra from the national flag and replace the same with a hanging rope, Pavendan, another sympathiser of the LTTE called for the ‘eradication of the Indian Conmstitution’.

Vaiko was imprisoned for more than one year in 2003 by the then Jayalalithaa government for delivering pro-LTTE speeches and entertaining sympathisers of the outfit which is banned in India.

The speeches come immediately after one of the intelligence officials told DNA that some of the Tamil groups based in the state were trying to inculcate anti-national feelings among the commonman by circulating copies of hate speeches and half truths.

With the President rejecting their clemency petition in early August, the stage is set for the hanging of the three LTTE activists. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 by Dhanu, an LTTE suicide bomber during an election campaign meeting at Sriperumbudur, a Chennai suburb.

The Special Investigation Team under the then CBI DIG Radha Vinod Raju had arrested 26 persons in connection with the assassination. While a TADA (Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act ) Special Court sentenced all the accused to death, the Supreme Court on appeal modified the judgment. While the apex court ratified the death sentence of four accused, the remaining 22 were given prison terms. But Nalini, one of the accused who was awarded death penalty escaped from the hangman’s noose when Sonia Gandhi came to power and commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/repor...jiv-gandhi-assassins-are-hanged-vaiko_1578884

 

[Kazhugu]

Maybe for Tamil extremists.

At least in Sri Lanka they got their comeuppance.

I hope the Indian government does hang them as an example.

not just extremists but for all tamils who are non-congressis......but then we tamils are all a bit extremist regarding our culture and language...

yes they have been defeated in lanka for now...but if lessons are not learnt by the other side and the pre-83 discrimination continues there are enough prabhakarans in eelam.....

regarding india hanging them..yes they must be hanged...but that does not make them criminals for me....

 

[Skyline]

that is what the lankan govt would want us to believe.....anyway coming back to topic...these three must be hanged... because law must take its course...but they die martyrs....

Answer is simple, there are plenty of ex-ltte members in the society. Converting a terrorist member back to a civilian is not that easy,but we have done it with in 2 years!

 

[Kazhugu]

Tamil Nadu will secede if Rajiv Gandhi assassins are hanged: Vaiko

lol.............

 

[samv]

Answer is simple, there are plenty of ex-ltte members in the society. Converting a terrorist member back to a civilian is not that easy,but we have done it with in 2 years!

Wrong move by the Sri Lankan government. All LTTE members should be kept behind bars for at least 10 years.

 

[Kazhugu]

Answer is simple, there are plenty of ex-ltte members in the society. Converting a terrorist member back to a civilian is not that easy,but we have done it with in 2 years!

some were spared just for this exact publicity sake...and most killed even while surrendering....any way no use in a sinhala and a tamil debating on these issues....just dont repeat the past discrimination against them if your country wants to remain in peace.....

---------- Post added at 09:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 PM ----------

Wrong move by the Sri Lankan government. All LTTE members should be kept behind bars for at least 10 years.

lol.....you killed most brutally and now you are acting like a saint....please...lol....