India’s Supreme Court on Thursday stopped the release of seven people convicted in the assassination of former premier Rajiv Gandhi.
The apex court had on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of three of the convicts, citing inordinate delays by the federal authorities in acting on their mercy plea. After the decision, the Tamil Nadu government announced it was setting free all seven convicts.
Gandhi was killed by the Sri Lankan Tamil guerrillas on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur after a suicide bomber set off explosives strapped around her body.
“We are concerned with the procedural lapses and we will examine it,” Chief Justice P Sathasivam said while hearing a plea filed by the federal government. The court has restrained Tamil Nadu government from taking any further steps and gave March 6 as the date for the next hearing on the case.
The politically-loaded decision of the Tamil Nadu government, headed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo J. Jayalalithaa, sparked a storm in the country as it meant Gandhi’s killers would soon walk free.
Jayalalithaa’s government had given three days, starting Wednesday, to the federal government to give their view before letting all seven walk free.
The decision appeared aimed at pleasing the state’s voters, who sympathise with fellow Tamils living across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka, with general elections due in April-May this year.
However, the announcement caused a national outcry, with the federal government knocking on the doors of the apex court and calling it a blatant violation of law.
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it as an attack on the soul of India, a senior leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Arun Jaitley, criticised institutional compassion for Gandhi’s killers.
“The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was an attack on the soul of India. Release of the killers of a former PM of India, our great leader, and other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice. No government or party should be soft in our fight against terrorism,” Premier Singh said in a statement issued by his office.
Reacting swiftly to the review petition filed through Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran, the apex court bench issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government, inspector-general (Prisons) and the three killers Sriharan alias Murugan, T. Suthentiraja alias Santhan and A.G. Perarivalam alias Arivu who had been notified of the first major relief from the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
They, along with four others, including Murugan’s wife Nalini, who was granted mercy in 2000 after intervention of the Gandhi family, have already spent 23 years in prison.
