The Vellore jail authorities are understood to have written a letter to the State government as per the prison rules seeking an order for deferring the hanging of Murugan, Santhan and G. Perarivalan, the three death convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, in view of the petitions filed by them in the Madras High Court seeking annulment of the death sentence.
The Superintendent of the Central Prison, Vellore on Friday fixed September 9 as the date of execution of the death sentence following the receipt of the official communication from the Government of India that the President has rejected the mercy petitions filed by the three convicts in April 2000.
According to reliable sources, the Prison Superintendent has forwarded the letter to the State government under rule 921 of the Prison Manual, which enables the prison authorities to seek an order on deferment of the hanging of death convicts, if petitions submitted by the latter in any court or appeals made by them with the government were pending disposal.
Their petitions seeking commutation of their death sentence to a life term are coming up in the High Court on Tuesday.
