In May 1991, they blew up the man who would be India's...

In May 1991, they blew up the man who would be India's Prime Minister. Eleven years on, they wait to meet the fate the Supreme Court has said they must. But death has been so late coming that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi have now begun to believe it might never reach them. At Vellore Central Jail, Perarivalan, Chinna Santhan and Murugan are quietly convinced that the longer their mercy petition lies with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the better will be their chances of escaping the gallows. Their faith is hinged on the fair-mindedness of India's courts - something they believe can be relied upon to accept the idea that they have already died too many times over from "mental agony" to be killed all over again. "Let them (the mercy petitions) be pending," the trio's lawyer N. Chandrasekaran said. There are precedents of death row convicts having been spared on account of long delays in their execution, he reasoned. It's now been over four-and-a-half years that Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan have been waiting to be hanged. In January 1998, a special court sentenced them (along with 22 others) to death. In May 1999, the Supreme Court freed 19, but condemned Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan, along with Nalini, Murugan's wife, to die. The four appealed to Tamil Nadu Governor M. Fathima Beevi for mercy, who in April 2000 granted Nalini's plea. Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan petitioned President K.R. Narayanan. They pleaded they had been kept in solitary confinement since arrest, and had suffered "mental agony every minute" for close to a decade. Narayanan sat on the petitions for two years. And now Kalam, hope the petitioners, will dither long enough for them to plead death delayed has been punishment enough.