Centre to SC: Freeing Rajiv killers will be ‘dangerous’
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday that it does not concur with the Tamil Nadu government’s proposal to release seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying remission of their sentence will set a “dangerous precedent” and have “international ramifications”.
A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and KM Joseph took the document, filed by the ministry of home affairs (MHA), on record and adjourned the matter.
On January 23, the apex court had asked the Centre to take a decision within three months on a 2016 letter by the Tamil Nadu government, seeking its concurrence on releasing the convicts.
The letter, written on March 2, 2016, stated that the state government had already decided to release the seven convicts, but it was necessary to seek the Centre’s concurrence as per a 2015 order of the apex court.
“The central government, in pursuance of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, does not concur to the proposal of the government of Tamil Nadu contained in its communication letter dated March 2, 2016 for grant of further remission of sentence to these seven convicts,” stated the reply filed by MHA joint secretary VB Dubey.
The ministry said the trial court had given “cogent reasons” for imposing death penalty on the accused and pointed out that even the apex court had termed the assassination an “unparallel act” in the annals of crimes committed in India.
“... Releasing the four foreign nationals who had committed the gruesome murder of former prime minister of this country, along with 15 others, most of whom were police officers, in connivance with three Indian nationals will set a very dangerous precedent and lead to international ramifications by other such criminals in the future,” the Centre stated.
The MHA stated that the case involved the assassination of a former prime minister in a brutal manner in pursuance of a “diabolical” plot carefully conceived and executed by a foreign terrorist organisation.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu by a suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu, were killed in the explosion.
Convicts V Sriharan, alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja, alias Santham, A G Perarivalan, alias Arivu, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, P Ravichandaran and Nalini have been in jail for 25 years.
The Supreme Court had, on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of three convicts — Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan — citing inordinate delay by the executive in deciding their mercy plea. A day after, on February 19, 2014, the then J Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu had written a letter to the then UPA government at the Centre, seeking its opinion on the remission of the sentences awarded to all the seven convicts.
The Centre had rushed to the Supreme Court, claiming itself as the competent authority to decide on remission and not the state government, under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The apex court on February 21, 2014, passed an interim order and stayed the release of all seven convicts and referred the matter to a five-judge constitution bench.
The Tamil Nadu government, however, had said the states have power to grant remission under the law and trashed the accusations that its decision to release the seven convicts was “political and arbitrary”.
On December 2, 2015, the constitution bench held that the Centre has “primacy” over state’s right to grant remission and its “concurrence” is necessary before freeing the convicts in certain cases.
NEW DELHI: