TN to release 7 convicted for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination

A day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of three persons convicted for the murder of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, the Tamil Nadu government announced that it intended to release all seven persons convicted in the case. Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa today told the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the state goverment had decided to release all seven persons convicted in the case. The Chief Minister said that the government had decided to release Santhan, Murugan, AG Perarivalan, Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran. [caption id=“attachment_1397977” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Chief Minister’s decision comes a day after the SC judgement on three convicts. Reuters[/caption] She said that the decision to release all seven persons was taken at a emergency cabinet meeting held earlier today. However, the Tamil Nadu government will need the Centre’s nod to do so, a lawyer who represented three of the accused in the Supreme Court said. Lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhry who represented three convicts whose sentences were commuted by the Supreme Court yesterday said they could be released only after the Centre was consulted since the prosecution was done by a central agency. “The state government will have to consult with the central government in this regard,” Chaudhry told Times Now. He said that all convicts sentenced to life imprisonment were entitled to be released after they had served 14 years in prison as long as the state government had the required policy in place. “Every life convict has a right to be considered for premature release and there’s nothing political about it,” the lawyer said. The lawyer said that the state will have the final say in the matter but only after consulting with the Centre, he said. MDMK leader Vaiko said he welcomed the decision of the Tamil Nadu government that finally took cognizance of the “misery of these condemned prisoners”. Calling it a bold and historic decision by Jayalalithaa, Vaiko said he congratulates the AIADMK leader on behalf of his party and on behalf of thousands of Tamilians across the country and elsewhere. A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam yesterday rejected the Centre’s submission that there was no unreasonable delay in deciding the mercy plea of three convicts and the condemned prisoners did not go through agonising experience as they were enjoying life behind the bars. The bench, also comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and SK Singh, said they were unable to accept the Centre’s view and commuted the death sentence of convicts–Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan–to imprisonment for life subject to remission by the government. It asked the Centre to give timely advice to the President so that mercy petitions can be decided without unreasonable delay. Rajiv Gandhi was killed in May 1991. His assassins were convicted by a TADA court in January 1998 and were awarded death sentence, which was confirmed by the apex court May 11, 1999.