In a 2-1 majority verdict, the court upheld the conviction of four accused--Nalini, her husband Murugan, Santhan and Arivu--confirming their death sentence.

The judgment was delivered by a three-judge bench comprising Justice K T Thomas, Justice D P Wadhwa and Justice S S M Quadri, each pronouncing a separate verdict and the last two constituting the majority view.

While Justice Thomas and Justice Quadri agreed on the death sentence to three of the above, there were sharp differences among them on the sentence to be awarded to Nalini.

Justice Thomas said Nalini was an educated woman and ``was an obedient participant in the conspiracy but played no dominant role.'' She was brainwashed by Murugan andothers to believe the horrific stories about IPKF excesses in Sri Lanka, the judge said, and that she had confided in her brother that she never realised the seriousness of the conspiracy till it was too late for her to withdraw.

However, Justice Quadri said if the death sentence was not awarded to Nalini, who was a willing participant in the conspiracy to kill, then justice would be stunted. Justice Wadhwa said she was mentally prepared by Dhanu, Sivarasan, Murugan and Subha and she voluntarily participated in the dry run at V P Singh's function held a few days earlier.

And both Justice Wadhwa and Justice Quadri concurred on awarding the death sentence to her although Justice Thomas observed that ``as Murugan, the father of their child, (he married Nalini in prison), was awarded the death sentence, the mother (Nalini) should be saved not to make the child an orphan.''

Justice Thomas put all the accused into four categories: those who formed the hardcore; those who induced others into the conspiracy andplayed an active role, those who joined the conspiracy, and those who played a passive role.

The judge said all the accused belonging to the first category, including V Prabhakaran, were never brought to trial because they were either dead or absconding.

``The seven accused whose conviction is upheld belong to the second category,'' the judge ruled.

While upholding the conviction of only the seven accused on the charge of conspiracy to murder Rajiv Gandhi under Sections 302 and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (ipc), the judges set aside their conviction under various provisions of the TADA.

The judges acquitted 18 out of the remaining 19 accused on the charge of conspiracy to murder the former Prime minister. Their conviction for minor offences was upheld but they were ordered to be released forthwith as they had already served the necessary period of imprisonment. One accused, S Shanmugavadivelu, was acquitted of all charges.

Though 41 people, including Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and Akila werearraigned as accused in the chargesheet filed by the SIT, only 26 were tried. Of the 41 accused, 12 others including the alleged assassins were killed later. Belt-bomb assassin Dhanu blew herself up killing Rajiv while her accomplice Subha and one-eyed Jack, Sivarasan, committed suicide.

The chargesheet was filed in a record one-year time on May 20, 1992; pre-trial in the designated court at the high security prison at Poonamalle which began on May 5, 1992 ended on November 2, 1993.

After the charges were framed against the accused, in-camera trial and examination of witnesses began on January 19, 1994 and ended on November 5, 1997.