All six convicts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi have been set free by the Supreme Court.
The convicts — Nalini, Ravichandran, Jayakumar, Robert Pais, Jayakumar and Santhan — were were originally sentenced to death. Subsequently, it was changed to life imprisonment.
The court noted that the Tamil Nadu cabinet had recommended their release on September 9, 2018. Now the Governor will have to comply to this opinion, before whom their remission plea was pending.
All convicts have already spent three decades in jail serving their sentence. During this period had spent time studying and earning degrees.
All the convicts have been engaged in a long battle seeking their early release.
The convicts had challenged the delay, noting that co-accused, A. G. Perarivalan, was released by the apex court in May. They had sought the same consideration.
In June, the Madras Hight Court, however, had rejected a writ petition filed by Nalini and Ravichandran seeking premature release.
He was assassinated on May 21, 1991, in Tamil Nadu.
On May 21 1991, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu at a political rally by a woman suicide bomber identified as Dhanu. 14 others including Rajiv Gandhi were killed. Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning for the upcoming elections with G.K Moonpanar in India’s Southern states.
As per the supreme court, the assassination was committed due to the personal animosity of theLTTE chief Prabhakaran against Rajiv Gandhi for sending Indian peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka.