Rajiv Gandhi assassination: SC rejects Centre plea

“We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in the Rupa Hurra case. Hence, the curative petitions are dismissed,” said a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu on Tuesday.

The brief decision of the bench, also comprising Justices T S Thakur, A R Dave, Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh, came on the curative pleas filed by the then UPA government against dismissal of the review petitions. The review pleas, challenging the commutation of death penalty to life term of Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, were dismissed by the court in February last year on the ground of an 11-year delay in deciding on their mercy petitions. The three convicts are lodged in a Vellore prison.