DMK president M. Karunanidhi Saturday urged the Tamil Nadu government to pass a cabinet resolution to commute to life terms the death sentences of the three LTTE members convicted in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In a statement issued, Karunanidhi said: “The state government should immediately convene of a cabinet meeting and pass a resolution cancelling the death sentence to three convicts and send it to the governor and take steps to release them.”

The three convicts on death row are V. Sriharan, also known as Murugan, T. Suthendraraja, also known as Santhan, and A.G. Perarivalan, also known as Arivu. Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 at an election rally at Sriperumbudur, near here.

The three - all linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - were awarded the death sentence by the trial court in 1999.

They moved mercy petitions in 2000 before the president seeking commutation of their death sentences to life imprisonment.

Earlier in 2011, their mercy petitions were rejected by then president Pratibha Patil. The Tamil Nadu assembly in 2011 passed a resolution urging the president to commute their death sentence to life.

Karunanidhi’s statement comes in the wake of the apex court Friday rejecting the commutation plea of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict on death row Devender Pal Singh Bhullar.

IANS