Convicts in Rajiv Gandhi case set free prematurely

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 11

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the premature release of the remaining six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Deemed to have served sentence

We direct that all appellants are deemed to have served their sentence...The applicants are thus directed to be released unless required in any other case. — Bench

Rajiv Gandhi, a former Prime Minister, was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, Dhanu, during an election rally.

A Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice BV Nagarathna, which ordered the release of convicts Nalini Sriharan, Robert Payas, Ravichandran, Suthenthira Raja, alias Santhan, V Sriharan, alias Murugan, and Jayakumar, said they should be set free, if not wanted in any other case.

Earlier, the top court had ordered the release of convict AG Perarivalan on May 18. The Bench, which also included Justice BV Nagarathna — said the top court’s order in Perarivalan’s case was equally applicable to these convicts.

“In so far as the applicants before us are concerned, their death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on account of a delay...We direct that all appellants are deemed to have served their sentence...The applicants are thus directed to be released unless required in any other case,” it said.

Nalini and Ravichandran had moved the top court against the June 17 Madras High Court order dismissing their pleas for early release. They had sought parity with co-convict Perarivalan.

Using its powers under Article 142, the Supreme Court had on May 18 ordered the release of Perarivalan, who had served three decades in jail.

The Tamil Nadu Government had favoured the premature release of Nalini and Ravichandran, contending that the Governor was bound by its September 9, 2018, advice for the premature release of all seven convicts.

Nalini, Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case. The top court had upheld the death sentence of Perarivalan, Murugan, Santhan and Nalini in May 1999.

However, in 2014, it commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment along with those of Santhan and Murugan on grounds of an inordinate delay in deciding their mercy petitions. Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2001 on the grounds that she had a daughter.

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