Supreme Court orders release of 6 convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case

The Supreme Court Friday set free six convicts in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying its previous order releasing another convict A G Perarivalan was applicable to them as well.

A bench led by Justice B R Gavai directed for the release of convicts, including S Nalini and R P Ravichandran, saying they have been in jail for over 30 years.

Other convicts are V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santham, Jayakumar and Robert Payas.

The bench noted that this court, in case of convict Perarivalan, had already decided on May 18 that the Governor was bound to accept the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu government granting remission.

Senior advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Sanjay Hegde for the convicts contended that there was no need to await any response from the Union government.

Nalini and Ravichandran had filed separate pleas in the Madras High Court citing the release of Perarivalan by the top court.

However, the High Court had on June 17 said that it cannot exercise powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to pass a similar order, passed by the top court.

On May 18, the Supreme Court invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, as it ordered the release of Perarivalan, sentenced to life in the assassination case.

In its response, Tamil Nadu said two life-term convicts can be released prematurely, as both had served over 30 years in jail and the state had approved remitting the sentence of all seven convicts over four years ago.

The state government also pointed out that the Governor did not decide on its recommendations, sent on September 11, 2018, for over two years and forwarded the file to the President on January 27, 2021, which still remained undecided.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed.

The top court had on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of three convicts - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan - citing inordinate delay (of 11 years) by the executive in deciding their mercy plea.

In 1998, the TADA court sentenced 26 of the accused to death.

In May 1999, the top court upheld the death sentence of four namely Murugan, Santham, Perarivalan and Nalini, commuted the death sentence of three to a life term and freed the remaining 19 convicts.

In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu Governor commuted the death sentence of Nalini on the basis of the state government's recommendation and an appeal by then Congress President Sonia Gandhi, wife of Rajiv Gandhi.