Centre has no mercy for Rajiv Gandhi killers

CHENNAI: An interim injunction granted earlier on the execution of death sentence against Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, the accused in former PM Rajiv Gandh assasination and imprisoned in the Vellore Central Prison, will be operational till the disposal of their writ petitions challenging the same, the Madras High Court clarified on Friday.The clarification followed a request by MDMK leader Vaiko to ‘extend the stay’ on the execution till November 29 — the date until which the matter was adjourned on Friday. “Where is the question of extension? It (interim injunction granted on August 30) was only an injunction,’’ the bench comprising justices C Nagappan and M Sathiyanarayanan said.The Union government filed its counters justifying the delay of nearly 11 years in passing orders on the mercy petitions of the trio by the President. “Delay in disposal of the mercy petitions, however long it may be, is not a mitigating circumstance or can be construed as a valid ground for commutation of death sentence and in any event it does not reduce the gravity of the crime,’’ it said in its counter affidavits filed in response to the petitions from the trio.The State was non-committal to the trio’s contentions. “The state government has no comments or remarks to offer (on the contentions),’’ it said. It demanded dismissal of all the three writ petitions.