The Supreme Court on Friday, November 11, ordered the release of the remaining six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at an election meeting in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur in 1991. Seven people — Murugan alias Sriharan, Nalini, AG Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and P Ravichandran were convicted that same year and given death penalties, which was commuted to life imprisonment in later years. The order for the release of the six convicts — Murugan, Nalini, Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and P Ravichandran — comes six months after AG Perarivalan was released from prison.
The court was hearing two petitions and four applications for release filed by the convicts. The Supreme Court held that the legal reasoning for releasing a convict in the case was already established when Perarivalan was released, and that the same arguments would apply in the cases of the other convicts. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna noted that the convicts all displayed good conduct in prison, and that they had also received educational qualifications while in jail. “We have no reason to keep you in jail any longer,” the court observed.
The court also held that a Governor is bound by the resolutions a state government makes. In the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Tamil Nadu Assembly has passed multiple resolutions for the release of the convicts and the Cabinet has recommended the release of the convicts as well and sent the same to the Governor; however the Governor’s office has repeatedly refused to take a call on this. The SC said, “It can be seen that the Honourable Governor in the matter of an Appellant convicted for [IPC section] 302 (punishment for murder) was bound by decision of the State, which here has recommended remission for the applicants.”
Noting the good conduct of Nalini and Ravichandran in jail, the apex court ordered their release ‘unless wanted in any other case’.
Nalini Sriharan, Murugan, Santhan, Robert Payas, Jayakumar have been in jail since 1991. On January 20, 1998 a TADA court sentenced 26 of the accused to death. In 1999, 19 persons were acquitted and death sentences were retained for Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan. Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Jayakumar were sentenced to life imprisonment. From then on, the prisoners have filed mercy pleas and approached various courts for relief multiple times. While Nalini’s death sentence was commuted in 2000, the death sentences of the other three were commuted in 2014 by the Supreme Court.
The Jayalalithaa-led government on February 19, 2014 made an announcement to release all the seven convicts under Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) (power to suspend or remit sentences). But this was stayed the very next day by the Supreme Court citing procedural lapses.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to release AG Perarivalan, who had also been convicted for the assassination of the former Prime Minister.