After the recent rejection of the mercy plea of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar by the Supreme Court, MDMK supremo Vaiko urged the State to experiment with Article 161, which gave power to Governors to pardon death sentence, here on Sunday.
While releasing a digital disc of a song on the Eelam issue, ‘Senthamizhe’, Vaiko said, “As many 139 countries in the world have done away with capital punishment. Bhullar, who was convicted under TADA, is now literally pushed to the gallows. But a suspicion arises as to whether the Centre would follow the same procedure as that of the two earlier hangings of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru or not.”
He added, “The Constitution gives power to pardon death sentence by President under Article 72. Even if the President rejects the petition, a Governor of the state can pardon under Article 161. Whenever the Centre gives its nod for a hanging, we are afraid of the three persons convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. To save the lives of the three - Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan - Tamil Nadu should experiment with Article 161.”
When asked about the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting scheduled in Sri Lanka, he said, “We not only ask the international community to change the location of the Commonwealth meet but also urge that Sri Lanka should be thrown out of Commonwealth itself.”