SC notice to Centre over transfer of Rajiv’s assassins’ case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and others on a petition seeking transfer to any other High Court of the petition pending in Madras High Court seeking commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
A bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice H L Dattu granted two-week time to the state of Tamil Nadu and the Centre to respond to the petition filed by L K Venkata.
Madras High Court has stayed the hanging of three convicts namely Murugan, Perarivalan alias Arivu and Santhan, who were to be hanged on September 9. The main contention of the three convicts was that there mercy petition had been pending with the president of India for more than 11 years and they were in solitary confinement ever since their conviction by the trial court.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide attack by LTTE militants in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
The mercy petition was rejected by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil last month.