The apex court’s move came after it practiced its extraordinary powers to free a seventh convict, Perarivalan, in May.
New Delhi: Six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan, were freed by the Supreme Court after they spent 33 years in jail for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The apex court’s move came after it practiced its extraordinary powers to free a seventh convict, Perarivalan, in May. The court said the same order applied to the rest of the convicts. The Supreme Court also said that the Tamil Nadu government had asked the Governor in 2018 to set the convicts free.
However, the Congress is not very happy with the move. General secretary and party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said, “The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress Party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.”
In Tamil Nadu, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case stirs emotions and every government has tried to free the convicts. Some people in the state believe that the convicts played minor roles and were duped into taking part in the plot. They believe the convicts hardly knew anything about the plot.
Other than Nalini, the rest of the convicts were Sriharan, Santhan, Murugan, Robert Payas and R P Ravichandran.
On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) outfit from neighbouring Sri Lanka. The assassination had taken place in Sriperumbudur of Tamil Nadu.
While all the convicts were sentenced to death, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to life term. This happened after Sonia Gandhi intervened. Notably, in 2008, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the convict in the Vellore jail.
In 2014, the life sentences of the others too were reduced to life in jail. In the same year, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha, set the ball rolling to free the convicts.