SC decision to free Rajiv’s killers completely erroneous: Congress

The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous, said the Congress.

“The Congress Party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable,” read a statement issued by Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh. “It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.”

The Supreme Court had directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and R. P. Ravichandran, serving life sentence in the case. A bench of Justices B. R. Gavai and B. V. Nagarathna said the judgment of the top court in the case of former co-convict A.G. Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.

Perarivalan was granted premature release by the apex court on May 18 in exercise of its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. The May judgment had concluded that the State of Tamil Nadu, and not the Union, had exclusive power to recommend remission in the case.

File picture of Santhan, one of the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The Supreme Court on November 11, 2022, directed the release of six convicts serving life sentence in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
| Photo Credit: PTI

Shortly after the release of Perarivalan, Nalini and Ravichandran had approached the apex court for parity. The other four convicts had joined in by filing separate applications in the Supreme Court.

Ordering them to be “set at liberty forthwith”, Justices Gavai and Nagarathna also took into account the fact that each of the six convicts had individually exhibited satisfactory conduct during their long incarceration.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a LTTE woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.

(With inputs from PTI)