Accept TN cabinet's decision & release seven Rajiv case convicts: Stalin to President

Stalin reminded the President of a resolution passed by the then Palaniswami cabinet recommending the release of seven persons

Asking President Ram Nath Kovind to accept the 2018 recommendation of the state Cabinet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has written to him demanding remission of life sentence and immediate release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In a two-page letter to Kovind – written on May 19 and delivered in person by DMK MP T R Baalu to President's Secretariat on May 20 – Stalin reminded the President of a resolution passed by the then Edappadi K Palaniswami cabinet recommending the release of the seven persons.

The cabinet had on September 9, 2018 recommended to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to release Murugan, Santhan, Nalini, Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, and Ravichandran. However, the Governor sat on the file for over two years and passed the buck by saying the President was the competent authority to decide on their release.

“These persons have already suffered hardship and agony in the past three decades and have paid a heavy price. There has already been an inordinate delay in the consideration of their pleas for remission. In the present circumstance of Covid-19 pandemic, Courts are also recognising the need to decongest prisons,” Stalin wrote in the letter.

The issue of seven convicts is a highly emotive issue in Tamil Nadu with almost all political parties – barring Congress and BJP – endorsing the decision to release them from jail. The AIADMK government had in 2018 passed the resolution and sent it to the Governor, who told the Supreme Court after two years that he cannot take a call on it.

The Centre has also been arguing that only it can decide on the release of the seven convicts as the case was investigated by its agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In the letter, Stalin also noted that all parties support their release from prison.

“I therefore request the Hon'ble President to kindly accept the recommendation of the state government dated 9.9.2018 and pass appropriate orders to remit the life sentence of all the seven convicts and direct their release immediately and oblige,” Stalin said.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991, before he was to address an election rally.