Team News Riveting
New Delhi, November 11
Terming the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining six killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as “unacceptable and completely erroneous”, Congress party today said it “disagreed” with former president Sonia Gandhi whose appeal helped in the commutation of death sentence of convict Nalini Sriharan.
The Supreme Court, on Friday, ordered the premature release from prison of six Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts that include Nalini Sriharan, P Ravichandran, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Santhan and Murugan. All were serving life sentence in the case.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna passed the order after noting that the convicts displayed good conduct in the prison and had been behind bars for a very long period. “Applicants are thus directed to be released unless wanted in any other case. Matter accordingly disposed of,” the order said.
Asserting that Sonia Gandhi was entitled to her personal views, senior lawyer and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the party’s stand had been consistent on this over the years and that it would take “all available remedies, be it review or any other form of legal redress” on the matter. “We will exercise whatever legal rights we have. We owe it not only to the people of this country but also to the Supreme Court and the legacy it has built,” Singhvi said, adding that the decision had “shocked the nation’s conscience”.
On Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi’s very public stance on the issue, he said: “We are consistent. It is an institutional matter. This is not politics. Sonia Gandhi is entitled to her views but the party doesn’t agree with that view. We respect that view,” Singhvi said. “Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was not like any other crime. This is a national issue, not a local murder,” he added.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also met Nalini in a prison in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore in 2008. The Congress said it would seek legal remedy.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group. All seven convicts, who have spent more than 30 years in prison, were sentenced to death for their role in the killing.
In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet chaired by then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi recommended commutation of Nalini’s death sentence to life imprisonment. In 2000, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to a life term on the intervention of Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and former Congress president. Sonia Gandhi had filed a clemency petition that pointed out that Nalini was pregnant when she was arrested.
The sentence of six more convicts was also commuted in 2014. The same year, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha initiated moves to free them.
Congress ally DMK in Tamil Nadu welcomed the decision. Calling it a “victory of strong legal battles and humanity” and a “victory of democratic theory”, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said the judgment is proof that decisions of the elected government shouldn’t be shelved by Governors in appointed positions.
The Congress however disagreed with Stalin’s statement and said party and DMK’s stand have always been different on the issue.
