DHAKA: The government in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has decided to free three men and a woman convicted of plotting the 1991 assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, citing government delays in deciding their mercy pleas, reports BBC.

They had been on death row since 1998.

The fourth convict Nalini Sriharan`s death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment in 1999.

All four were members of the Tamil Tiger rebels who were defeated by Sri Lanka in 2009. Gandhi`s murder was seen as retaliation for his having sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.

BDST:  1214 HRS, FEB 19, 2014