Robert Payas, one of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, demands a mercy killing. Citing no hope of release, he said that his family is also not visiting him anymore. None of the accused have been executed in the case till now, though seven have been sentenced to death
Robert Payas, one of the seven convicts serving a life term for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination now demands a 'mercy killing', citing that there is no hope for clemency. After serving jail for 26 years, he said that he has no hope of getting released.
Payas is one of the seven convicts spared the gallows. Seven other accused are slated for the death-sentence. In a letter to the state government, Payas said, "Despite the Tamil Nadu government supporting me, no efforts are being taken. Both the Central governments, (previous Congress-led coalition UPA and the BJP-led NDA) have remained silent on this issue and seems to me like both want my life to end in prison."
Moreover, his family is also not visiting him anymore, which has led him to be further depressed. So far, no one has been executed in the case. Either the death sentences have not been carried out or they have been reduced to life imprisonment.
After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991, a trial court had sent 26 accused to death under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, or TADA, in 1998. The very next year, the Supreme Court freed 19 of them, upheld death for four and reduced the sentences of three accused from death sentence to life imprisonment. Payas was one of them. In the case of Nalini Sriharan, who had pleaded for clemency, Congress president Sonia Gandhi backed her release because of her daughter who was born in prison and was now living in the UK.
Meanwhile, the J Jayalalithaa government tried to release the seven convicts in 2014 but the central government blocked the effort saying that assassinating the PM of India is a diabolical act.
The Centre had approached the Supreme Court against the state's decision. After two years, a five-judge bench of the top court ruled that the state government did not have the powers to take a call to release convicts sentenced under a central law and a case investigated by a central agency. In this case, the Central Bureau of Investigation had probed the assassination.
