The President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil has rejected the mercy petitions of three men convicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A Rashtrapati spokesman today told All India Radio that the decision on the mercy petitions of three convicts–Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, was taken by the President on her return from the foreign tour last week.AIR correspondent reports, the rejection of mercy petitions thus clears the way for hanging to death of the three convicts, allegedly belonging to the Liberation of Tigers Eelam (LTTE). Their death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1999 for plotting the killing of Gandhi on May 21, 1991. The apex court had, however, commuted the capital punishment awarded to Nalini Sriharan to life imprisonment. The former Prime Minister was killed in a human bomb blast during his election tour in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.