DMK team meets PM,seeks mercy for 3 Rajiv killers

Days after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Mahendra Nath Das,the DMK on Friday approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking clemency for three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Days after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Mahendra Nath Das,the DMK on Friday approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking clemency for three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. A delegation of DMK MPs met Singh and urged him to make a recommendation to the President to commute their death sentence.

In the light of the recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of Mahendra Nath Das,the death sentence of Murugan,Saanthan and Perarivalan be commuted to life on humanitarian grounds,taking into consideration the long period of imprisonment they have already undergone,by passing a resolution in the Union Cabinet recommending to the President of India, they said in a memorandum to the Prime Minister.

The delegation led by T R Baalu also demanded abolition of death penalty. The Prime Minister,sources said,noted that many civilized nations are abolishing death penalty but said a decision can be taken only after weighing all the pros and cons. They pointed out that the case of the three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was similar to that of Das.

Their conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1998. They have been suffering imprisonment for more than 22 years ever since their arrest in the year 1991. Almost half of their lives have been spent within the four walls with the pain of expecting death every morning. This imprisonment is more cruel than death. Death penalty is nothing but legal murder and should not have any place in a democratic and civil society like ours, the DMK leaders argued.

Seeking abolition of death penalty,they said,Death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which India is also a signatory. In fact,India is one of the few countries in the world that still has death penalty, they said.