New Delhi : Even as the Supreme Court is set to hear the mercy plea of the four aides of Veerappan on Monday, his wife V Muthulakshmi is trying to gather support against the executions.

Playing the Tamil card, Muthulakshmi has requested the Jayalaithaa government to pass a resolution to stop the execution of her husband’s associates, as she had done in the case of death convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

“Jayalalithaa had passed a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly for those death convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. These four people too are Tamils. They are not terrorists but innocent people wrongfully arrested. More than hundred people were acquitted in the case. So a resolution has to be passed for these people as well,” she said.

Veerappan’s elder brother Gnanaprakash and three others namely – Simon, Meesekar Madaiah and Bilavendran were awarded death sentence in 2004 in connection with a landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993 in which 22 police personnel were killed.

The apex court on Saturday had refused to take up the mercy plea of the four aides of Veerappan for hearing, as there was no proof that the execution was imminent.

Many pro-Tamil groups have also called for a resolution to be passed to stop the execution of Veerappan’s aides.

Veerappan’s aides had on Saturday moved the Supreme Court against the execution of their death penalty in connection with a landmine blast that had killed 22 policemen in Karnataka nearly 20 years ago.

Their mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 13 and according to sources, their hanging has been fixed for tomorrow.

The four convicts are lodged in the high-security Hindalga Jail, Belgaum in Karnataka.

A TADA court in Mysore had in 2001 sentenced them to life term which was enhanced to death sentence by the apex court.

Gang leader Veerappan was killed in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu police in October 2004.