Skip to main content

India - Rajiv Gandhi assassination: 3 to hang Sep 9

Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan
The 3 men facing death penalty for the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi will be hanged Sep 9 in Tamil Nadu's Vellore prison, a jail official said Friday.

Prison Superintendent R. Arivudainambi Friday afternoon received the official communication to carry out the execution of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.

“We have informed the convicts about the date of hanging. The execution will be (carried out) Sep 9 early morning,” Arivudainambi told IANS.

He said the movement of the convicts inside the prison will be restricted from now on.

“If they want any books from the library, they will be provided inside their cells but they won't be allowed to visit the library,” he said.

Family members will still be allowed to meet them, he added.

On Aug 11, President Pratibha Patil rejected the mercy petition of the three men who were linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ordered Gandhi's killing.

A woman suicide bomber blew up Gandhi, who was prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989, at an election rally in Sriperumbudur near Chennai May 21, 1991.

In 1998, all 26 accused in the case - including the 3 - were sentenced to die by a special trial court.

In 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences of 4: Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan and Nalini, an Indian woman who had assisted the killer squad.

The capital punishment of the others was reduced to varying terms of imprisonment.

The death sentence of Nalini, who married Murugan and became a mother in prison, was commuted to life imprisonment after her mercy petition was accepted.

The petition had the recommendation of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's widow.

Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan and the others were charged with criminal conspiracy that led to Gandhi's killing. They then petitioned the Indian president.

Meanwhile, more and more people in Tamil Nadu are demanding that the three should not be hanged.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss urged Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa to save the 3 from the gallows.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko has made a similar appeal to Jayalalithaa.

On Friday, Puthiya Tamizhagam leader K. Krishnasamy walked out of the state assembly after the speaker did not allow him to raise the issue.

Source: New Kerala, August 27, 2011


Karunanidhi appeals to Sonia to intervene

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi today appealed to the Congress led UPA government at the Centre and its Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene and prevent the hanging of 3 convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on September 9.

Reiterating that the DMK was against death penalty, Mr Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a key constituent of the UPA government at the centre, said as only a few days were left for the execution of the death penalty, both the Centre and state governments should act fast and save the lives.

''The Congress, which is leading the coalition government at the Centre and its President Ms Gandhi should show interest in the case and come forward to save 3 lives,'' the DMK leader said in a statement here.

The Tamil Nadu government should also take all steps to cancel the death sentence of the three convicts Sriharan alias Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, he said.

Source: New Kerala, August 27, 2011

Related articles:
Aug 12, 2011
Tags : India, Sri Lanka, Terrorism. Location Inde. 1 commentaires: naan said... Kindly read this below URL and give your thoughts, whether Perarivalan did or not. Hope you can understand more after you read this. ...
Aug 18, 2011
Earlier this week, President Pratibha Patil dismissed the clemency pleas of Murugan, Santhan, and Perarivalan, on death row for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The Home Ministry has advised President Patil to dismiss ...

Comments

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Florida | Tampa Bay man who killed wife, 3 family members sentenced to die

Shelby Nealy will be executed by the state for bludgeoning his wife’s family to death in 2018, a judge decided Friday. During a two-week sentencing trial in July, jurors heard how Nealy, 32, ended a volatile relationship with his second wife by killing her, then murdered her parents and brother a year later in an effort to never be caught. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in 2023. On July 25, the jury of three men and nine women deliberated for about two hours and voted 11-1 that Nealy should be sentenced to death. He stared straight ahead as the verdict was read.

Texas | Death Sentence Overturned After 48 Years

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional  A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals.  Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press. 

US AG Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Three LA Gangsters Charged with Murder

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has directed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles to seek the death penalty against three members of a transnational street gang charged with murdering a former gang member who was cooperating with law enforcement on a racketeering and methamphetamine trafficking case, officials announced Thursday. In a letter to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on Wednesday, Blanche told prosecutors in the Central District of California they are “authorized and directed” to seek the death penalty against Dennis Anaya Urias, 27, Grevil Zelaya Santiago, 26, and Roberto Carlos Aguilar, 31. All are from South Los Angeles.

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

Texas appeals court says another man's confession not enough to reconsider Broadnax execution

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Tuesday it won't consider another man's confession as a reason to pause a scheduled lethal injection in three weeks. James Broadnax was convicted of murdering two Christian music producers in Garland, but his cousin, Demarius Cummings, recently confessed that he was the shooter. University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Clinic professor Jim Marcus said the appeals court acts as a gatekeeper for cases meeting criteria to get back in court.

Saudi Arabia | Seven executed for drug trafficking

Saudi authorities executed seven people who had been convicted of drug trafficking in a single day, state media says. The Saudi Press Agency says five Saudis and two Jordanians were found guilty of trafficking amphetamine pills into the kingdom. “The death penalty was carried out as a discretionary punishment against the perpetrators,” the agency reports, adding that the executions took place on Sunday in the Riyadh region. Since the beginning of 2026, Riyadh has executed 38 people in drug-related cases, the majority of the 61 executions carried out, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term:   Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia.  Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Former FedEx driver pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old girl after making delivery at her Texas home

FORT WORTH, Texas — Tanner Lynn Horner, a former contract delivery driver for FedEx, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the 2022 capital murder and aggravated kidnapping of 7-year-old Athena Strand, a move that abruptly shifted the proceedings into a high-stakes punishment phase where jurors will decide between life imprisonment and the death penalty. Horner, 34, entered the plea in a Tarrant County courtroom as his trial was set to begin. The case was moved to Fort Worth from neighboring Wise County last year after defense attorneys argued that pretrial publicity would prevent a fair trial in the community where the girl disappeared.

North Carolina | “Incapable to proceed”: man who killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska ruled incompetent

DeCarlos Brown, accused of stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train, has been found mentally unfit for trial, stalling death penalty proceedings. DeCarlos Brown Jr., accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train in August 2025, has been found mentally incapable of standing trial, according to a court motion filed 7 April in Mecklenburg Superior Court. A 29 December 2025 report from Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Granville County, concluded that Brown was "incapable to proceed to trial," according to the motion filed by his attorney, Daniel Roberts. The evaluation was ordered after Brown's defense raised concerns about his mental state.