Supreme Court: After serving 33 years in prison, Nalini Sriharan and five additional Rajiv Gandhi assassination case defendants have been released by the Supreme Court.
In May, the Supreme Court exercised its extraordinary authority to set free Perarivalan, a seventh prisoner. The court declared that the remaining inmates were subject to the same decree.
The court further noted that the inmates’ release had been proposed to the Governor by the Tamil Nadu government in 2018.
Along with Nalini, Sriharan, Santhan, Murugan, Robert Payas, and RP Ravichandran were also imprisoned for the 1991 murder of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
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The lawyer for Nalini used the Tamil phrase “magizhchi” for “a state of joy.”
The Rajiv Gandhi murderers’ case has sparked intense emotion in Tamil Nadu, and both the AIADMK and the DMK have led campaigns for their release. Many people in Tamil Nadu think that the seven inmates were tricked into taking part in a conspiracy they understood nothing about and that they played small parts in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi.
On May 21, 1991, a female suicide bomber from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation from the neighbouring Sri Lanka assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
Due to their involvement in the murder, the seven prisoners received death sentences.
On the initiative of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and the previous president of the Congress, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2000. She met with Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Vellore prison in 2008.
In 2014, the sentences of six further offenders were also commuted. The same year, J Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu at the time, started the process to release them.
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Congress protests top court’s decision
The Supreme Court’s decision to release Rajiv Gandhi’s killers drew a vehement protest from the Congress.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress Party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.”
The prisoners had previously served 33 years in prison, according to Nalini Sriharan’s brother Bakianathan, and had endured enough suffering. “They were released on humanitarian grounds. Those who oppose their release should respect the laws of India,” Bakianathan spoke with the press.
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