Rajiv's killers spared gallows as SC turns down curative petition

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers will not hang as the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected curative petition of the Centre and upheld its earlier decision to commute the death penalty of three death-row convicts into life.The death penalty of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan was commuted to life by the Supreme Court on February 18, 2014 on the ground that their mercy petition was decided after an inordinate delay of 11 years. 

After a review petition against this order was earlier dismissed, the Centre was left with the option of filing a curative petition — the last legal remedy available under law to set aside an apex court judgment. Dealing with the Centre’s plea, a Bench of Chief Justice Hl Dattu, Justices TS Thakur, AR Dave, Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh unanimously declared that there is no ground to reverse its earlier order.

The Centre had argued in the petition that the allegations against the trio was of a serious nature involving terror attack on a former Prime Minister resulting in his death along with several other persons. Justices Gogoi and Singh were also part of the original order by which the sentence of death was commuted.The Centre has opposed any leniency to Rajiv Gandhi killers. It has even approached the apex court against the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to grant remission to all seven accused (including the three whose death sentence commuted by SC). A five-judge Constitution Bench is hearing the matter whether State has the power to grant remission in cases investigated by CBI.