TN CM Stalin welcomes SC order to release Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to release six convicts including Nalini Sriharan of the assassination case of the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“I welcome the Supreme Court Verdict on the release of six persons,” Stalin said in a tweet on Friday. Stalin lauded the apex court’s verdict and said, “It is a historic blow to the theory of democracy.”

“This judgment of the Supreme Court is proof that the decisions and decisions of the government elected by the people should not be shelved by the governors in the appointed positions,” he said.

Being in Opposition and in Government, DMK has always given voice for the release of these people while in government, he added.

Nalini Sriharan and five others were serving life sentence terms in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. They were set free by the SC on the grounds of having good conduct in jail.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group during a public rally.

The seven convicts were sentenced to death for their role in the killing. Their names included Nalini Sriharan, RP Ravichandran, Jayakumar, Santhan, Murugan, Robert Payas, and AG Perarivalan.

In the year 2000, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to a life term. Later in the year 2014, the sentence of the other six convicts was also reduced, and during the same year, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha recommended the release of all the seven convicts in the case.In May this year, one of the seven convicts, AG Perarivalan was released after spending 31 years in jail.

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