Chennai, Aug 27 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Congress Chief K.V. Thangkabalu Saturday said the law should take its course in former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case and the three persons sentenced to death should be hanged.


"There should be no travesty of justice," he told IANS. "If the convicted are allowed to go without punishment, there will be utter anarchy in the country. One cannot allow people coming from anywhere and killing people here."

On Aug 11, President Pratibha Patil rejected the mercy petitions of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan - all linked to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and sentenced to death for involvement in the 1991 assassination.

Leaders of various political parties, including Congress ally DMK, have demanded that the death sentences be overturned.

"Those who oppose the punishment are questioning the supremacy of the law," he said.

In a statement issued here, he said that already there have been several hindrances to carrying out the sentence and, at a time when it is to be executed, many outfits are trotting out with new reasons to stall it.

"Rajiv Gandhi was not (just) an individual," Thangkabalu said. "He was Congress president and former prime minister. He was killed in Tamil Nadu by a Tamil group. This fact is still burning in the heart of every Indian."

He asked of the politicians who demand that the death sentences be overturned: "Would the same partymen make a similar demand if their party leader was killed?"

He said the rule of law was central to democracy in the country.

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

In 1998, all the 26 accused in the case - including the three - were sentenced to die by a special trial court for Gandhi's killing.

In 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences of four: 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 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 the killing.

Soon after the confirmation of their sentence, they made a mercy plea to the Indian president, which was rejected.