Rajiv Gandhi killers ask for clemency

Chennai: The three offenders in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, Murugan alias Sriharan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu have challenged the Madras high court regarding the rejection of their mercy petitions by President Pratibha Patil.

Advocate N Chandrasekaran appeared on behalf of these three men and has made cite about the matter before Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar.The judge has directed him to file a writ petition.

The petition added that the President had failed to consider certain parameters while deciding on the mercy plea as the only Indian among the culprits, A.G Perarivalan had been roped into this case under section 120B of the IPC and was associated with Sivarasan but was not directly involved in the assassination.

The mercy petition was sent to the President on April 26, 2000 and the action was initiated on it in August, 2011. In the case of Vijayan and Suseentharan, the Supreme Court had held that mere association should not be considered as a vital role played in the plot. The above ratio was not applied to him. The mercy petition was not placed before the council of ministers but only before the home ministry.

Moreover, in 2005 Ragothaman, chief investigating officer in the case had said that a third, unidentified co-accused participated in the crime and the investigating authorities did not know till date the maker of the bomb.

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