New Delhi, August 11
After a long hiatus and suspense over their fate, President Pratibha Patil has rejected the mercy petitions of the three accused involved in the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesperson confirmed that the President rejected the mercy petitions of all three accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case last week.

The apex court had confirmed the death sentence of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan while commuting Nalini's sentence to life imprisonment

The Supreme Court had confirmed the death sentence to Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, while commuting the death sentence of Nalini to life imprisonment way back in 2000. A TADA court had awarded death sentence to all four for their involvement in the conspiracy.

Their appeal was pending with the Union Home Ministry till 2005 which sent the file to the President on June 21, 2005, but later recalled it for review on February 23, 2011, and then re-submitted it to the President on March 8.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed by Sri Lankan Tamil woman Dhanu, strapping a bomb around her waist, while garlanding Rajiv at an election rally at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.

Significantly, Rajiv’s widow Sonia Gandhi had forgiven Nalini and wrote to get Nalini’s daughter, then in Sri Lanka, to join her mother here in Tamil Nadu.There are a couple of important death sentences hanging fire for the several years and the BJP has been politically embarrassing the government particularly over the case of Afzal Guru, accused of involvement in Parliament attack of 2001. Now, since the Home Ministry has recommended to the President to reject Afzal Guru’s petition, it may not be long before his mercy petition is also rejected.