Can’t free Rajiv killers, SC told

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the seven killers of Rajiv Gandhi cannot be released as the case involved the assassination of the former Prime Minister in pursuance of a diabolical plot executed by a highly organised foreign terrorist organisation.

The Centre told a threejudge bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi that the Union home ministry had passed an order on April 18 and conveyed its decision to the Tamil Nadu government rejecting its proposal to grant remission and release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who are in jail for the last nearly 27 years.

By a letter dated March 2, 2016 the Tamil Nadu government reiterated the earlier proposal of February 19, 2014 to grant remission to seven convicts, viz Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan (whose death sentence was commuted to life sentence) and that of Nalini, Robert Pius, Jayakumar and Ravichandran, serving life term and sought Centre’s approval.

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the seven killers of Rajiv Gandhi cannot be released as the case involved the brutal assassination of the former Prime Minister in pursuance of a diabolical plot executed by a highly organised foreign terrorist organisation.

In January this year the court had granted three months time to the Centre to take a decision on the State’s proposal. Accordingly the decision has been taken the ASG told the Bench.

It said the crime was perpetrated as a result of a pre-planned and premeditated conspiracy, the brutal act brought the Indian democratic process to a grinding halt in as much as the general election to the Lok Sabha and assemblies on some States had to be postponed.

The Home Ministry has evaluated the case and decided that releasing the four foreign and three Indian nationals who had committed the gruesome crime will set a very dangerous precedent and lead to international ramifications by other such criminals in the future.

The apex court had already commuted the death sentence of three convicts into life imprisonment.