The 20-year-old daughter of 1 of Rajiv Gandhi's assassins has appealed to Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to assist save her father, Murugan. His hanging has been scheduled at the Vellore Jail on September nine.
In 1999, the Supreme Court gave Murugun the death sentence beside 2 alternative men. Murugun and Santhan are each Sri Lankan Tamils; Perarivalan is Indian. All 3 men appealed that their death sentence be commuted. Earlier this month, President Pratibha Patil rejected their petitions.
Murugun is married to Nalini, whose death sentence was commuted at Sonia Gandhi's request in 2000, when Nalini delivered a baby daughter, Harithra, in jail. Mrs Gandhi's husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber at an election rally in Sriperumbudur.
21-years-later, Harithra is seen currently in an exceedingly clip on YouTube. "I lived while not father and mother for several years. I miss them. I saw them last once I was a baby," she says. "The letters they send me are the sole happiness I even have," she says. She reportedly lives in London.
Jayalalithaa detected that when the country's President rejects mercy petitions, the Chief Minister cannot intervene. "I do not have any power to change the Presidential order rejecting the mercy petitions of the 3," she said this morning within the Assembly, asking alternative parties to refrain from suggesting otherwise. (Read: cannot intervene to save lots of Rajiv Gandhi convicts, says Jayalalithaa)
But Jayalalithaa's long-time rival DMK chief Karunanidhi, said, "Had young leader Rajiv Gandhi been alive nowadays, that noble man would have positively come back forward to save lots of the lives of Santhan, Perarivalan and Murugan, responding to the voice of true Tamils." (Read: Tamils are going to be happy if Rajiv assassins are spared, says Karunanidhi)
Perarivalan, who has an engineering diploma, was arrested for serving to procure batteries for the bomb and assembling it. Santhan and Murugan indoctrinated Nalini.
On Sunday, a 19-year-old pro-Tamil activist died when set herself on hearth in Kancheepuram to protest against the scheduled execution of the 3 men. The state Congress has thus far backed the execution. (Read: lady torches herself to save lots of Rajiv killers)
