'Totally unacceptable and erroneous': Congress after SC releases convicts of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case
The Supreme Court ordered the early release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, who was sentenced to life in prison in the case. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna ruled that the Supreme Court's decision in the case of one of the convicts, AG Perarivalan, is equally applicable in their case.
FollowThe Congress party called the Supreme Court's decision to release the six killers convicted of assassinating former Prime Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi 'unfortunate' and 'unacceptable.'
In response to the SC's decisions, Congress General Secretary in charge of communications and MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "The Supreme Court's decision to release the remaining killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is both unacceptable and erroneous. The Congress party strongly opposes it and believes it's completely untenable."
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According to Jairam Ramesh, it's most unfortunate that the Supreme Court did not act in accordance with the spirit of India on this issue.Â
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, by a woman suicide bomber from Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The Supreme Court ordered the early release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, who was sentenced to life in prison in the case. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna ruled that the Supreme Court's decision in the case of one of the convicts, AG Perarivalan, is equally applicable in their case.
The Supreme Court released the six convicts after 33 years in prison. Robert Payas, Jeyakumar, and Murugan are Sri Lankan nationals among the six released on Friday.
In May, the Supreme Court exercised its extraordinary powers to release Perarivalan, the seventh convict. The same order was issued to the remaining convicts, according to the court.
Nalini Sriharan's sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2000 due to the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's wife and former Congress president. Rajiv Gandhi's daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, visited her in Vellore jail in 2008. Six more convicts' sentences were also commuted in 2014.
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