Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan may not be hanged on September 9 as announced.
Prison authorities are unlikely to carry out the executions when their review petitions are still pending before the courts or the executive.
Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani is expected to move the petitions before the Madras high court on Monday seeking stay of the executions and also setting aside the death sentences.
“Now that the applications for stay of the executions and setting aside the death penalty are being moved before the high court, the prison officials will not carry out the hanging,” said rights activist and lawyer Sudha Ramalingam. “Death is irreversible punishment and the hanging will be carried out only when all avenues are closed”, the lawyer added.
Official sources agree. “Once their lawyers file the petitions in the court seeking stay of the execution, we will have to discuss the issue within the government and formally decide to put off the hanging”, a high-ranking officer told this newspaper.
The officer did not want to elaborate “because this is such a sensitive case”.
The legal battle apart, the public protests have been gaining momentum across the state after the announcement that the three men would be hanged on September 9 following the rejection of their mercy petitions by President Pratibha Patil. The “indefinite” fast by three women lawyers at Koyambedu here has entered the third day and several prominent personalities visited them on Sunday to express solidarity.
Many people have petitioned Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to intervene and save the men from the gallows, considering the pleading by Perarivalan’s aged parents and the London-based daughter of Murugan.