Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Supreme Court will take up the plea to commute the death sentences of three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case taking into account long delay of their mercy petitions on Thursday.
The three convicts are V Sriharan, also known as Murugan, T Suthendraraja, also known as Santhan, and AG Perarivalan, also known as Arivu.
The convicts are hopeful after a recent judgement by the Supreme Court of commuting sentences of 15 death row convicts to life imprisonment.
On January 21, the apex court delivered a landmark judgement, saying that delay in deciding mercy pleas could be ground for commuting death sentences.
The Supreme Court will be hearing the petitions of the convicts for commutation of their sentence. Notably, the mercy petitions of the trio were rejected after 11 years.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 at an election rally at Sriperumbudur near Chennai. The three - all linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - were awarded death sentences by the trial court in 1999.
(With Agency inputs)
