New Delhi (August 30, 2011): As per media reports the campaign to save the three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case picked up pace on yesterday.
Various sections of civil society, such as Lawyers, students and journalists have extended their support to three women advocates on a fast for the fourth day. They are demanding that the death sentence for the three men be reduced to a life term.
While college students gathered at the venue of the fast rent the air with slogans against capital punishment, others, including those from the law college, tried to hold a rally from Panagal Maligai to Raj Bhavan. The police stopped them midway at Saidapet. Hundreds of students from Loyola College also staged a protest.
In Delhi, five students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Delhi University’s Ananda Selvam (advocate, Supreme Court), Jagadeesan (CIL, JNU), Amudhini (BA, Political Science, DU), Lenin D Vinober (faculty of law, DU), Mritunjay (PhD student, DU ) sat on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar “to ensure justice to the trio.” Many Tamil students joined them. CPI leader D Raja and professors from the universities visited the site and extended their support.
The Madras High Court Advocates’ Association, meanwhile, decided to back noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani as he fights the case for Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan in the HC on Tuesday. Several supporters are expected to gather in the court complex then.
Meanwhile Sikh Students Federation, a Punjab based organization of students, has also supported the demand to cancel death sentence of Tamil men accused of killing Rajiv Gandhi. SSF has also expressed solidarity with the families of the convicts and extended their support to the student organizations and human rights activists organizing protests to seek clemency for Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.
“We have three points of concern in this regard; first, the execution would amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment” prohibited under Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as accused were put on death row for more than a decade. Secondly, the executions would break the de facto moratorium observed by the Indian state for past seven years as no execution is carried since 2004. Thirdly these executions are opposed to global trends of abolition of death penalty” said SSF national president, Parmjeet Singh Gazi.