The Supreme Court today asked the CBI to respond to a plea filed by one of the convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case seeking recall of the apex court's May 1999 order upholding his conviction. A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi posted the matter for hearing on the 21st of next month.<br/>'<br/>In its May 1999 order, the apex court had upheld the death sentence of four convicts – Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini in the assassination case. However, in April 2000, the Tamil Nadu governor commuted the death sentence of Nalini on the basis of state government's recommendation. <br/><br/>Later the top court on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, along with two other condemned prisoners – Santhan and Murugan – on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre.<br/>'<br/>Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed.<br/>