INDIA

‘Hanging Rajiv Gandhi killers would be incorrect’

Dailybhaskar.com | Feb 24, 2013, 17:33PM IST

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New Delhi/Chennai: Thirteen years after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins were awarded death sentence, hanging them now would be incorrect, says former Supreme Court justice KT Thomas. His comments came in wake of the recent hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

Reportedly, Thomas told in an interview that the move would be ‘constitutionally incorrect’. Also, he said that the judgement had errors as it did not take the antecedents, nature, and character of the accused into consideration.

The three accused in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi - Nalini Sriharan, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan – were awarded death penalty by Thomas. In 2000, Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The case was handed over to the apex court. It is expected to give its verdict after the Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar case verdict.

The secrecy surrounding the hanging of Afzal Guru was questioned by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who asked the central government why Rajiv Gandhi’s killers were still kept alive.