TNN, New Delhi :
The government on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reject the plea by three Rajiv Gandhi assassins seeking commutation of their death sentence to life, saying that they suffered no agony or dehumanisation during 11 years when their mercy petition was pending with the President.
Attorney General GE Vahanvati told an apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh that the petition by the Rajiv Gandhi assassins was not covered by January 21 verdict of the apex court, which said that inordinate, unexplained, unreasonable delay was a ground for commuting death sentence into life imprisonment.
Vahanvati told the court that all through these 11 years, these three assassins were living a full life by holding music shows, art exhibitions and other recreational activities in the jail.
The attorney general told the Supreme Court that neither in their mercy petitions nor in their petitions before the courts convicts have ever expressed remorse for the horrific crime.
The three convicts Santan, Murugan and Perarivalan deserve death and they should not be given life term because President’s decision on their mercy pleas came after 11 years, the attorney general said.
Attorney general Goolam Vahanvati explained the delay of 11 years and said of these, the NDA government sat over the file for four years and did not send it to the President.
The Centre said the UPA government had sent the mercy pleas to the President in 2005 but these were called back by a new home minister in 2011.
Within a short time, the new recommendation from the home ministry went to the President who rejected the mercy petitions, the attorney general said.
