The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, serving life imprisonment in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
In the month of May this year, the Supreme Court used its extraordinary powers to free a seventh convict, Perarivalan. The same order applied to the rest of the convicts.
The court also said that the Tamil Nadu government had recommended to the governor in 2018 that the convicts be freed from the jail.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May, 1991, in Sriperumbudur.
The Supreme court found Nalini Sriharan, Santhan, Murugan, Robert, Jayakumar, RP Ravichandran, and AG Perarivalan guilty and awarded them a death sentence.
The Rajiv Gandhi killers’ case stirs deep emotions in Tamil Nadu, and every government in the state, whether led by the AIADMK or DMK, has campaigned for their freedom. Many in Tamil Nadu believe that the seven prisoners played minor roles in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and were duped into taking part in a plot they knew little about.
Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2000 due to the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, the then-INC President, and Rajiv Gandhi’s wife.
In 2008, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met with Nalini in Vellore jail.
The sentences of six more convicts were also commuted in 2014. The same year, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha initiated moves to free them.
Nalini Sriharan’s brother, Bakianathan, said the convicts had already served 33 years in prison and had suffered enough. “They are released on humanitarian grounds. Those who oppose their release should respect the laws of India.”
Following Perarivalan’s release, Ravichandran had sent a letter to Chief Minister MK Stalin seeking the release of the remaining six convicts, including him and mentioned that the Governor has kept the files of release without consideration for over three years which he condemns as an anti-constitutional approach.
Deciding Perarivalan’s plea for premature release from jail based on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018, the Supreme court ordered his release, while the six other convicts remain in jail.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of 21 May, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.