The Supreme Court on Friday o🦩rdered the premature release of Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Both of them had moved to the top court seek😼ing premature release.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is applica𒊎ble in their matter. The Bench passed the order allowing convicts Nalini, Santhan, Murugan, Sriharan, Robert Payas, and Ravichandran to walk o෴ut of jail.
All convicts are to be released from jail if not needed in any other case, the court said while hearing the plea filed by the p๊rime accused named in the case, who w✱ere present at the site of the bombing attack which killed Rajiv Gandhi and 21 others.
Invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Con💜stitution, the top court had on May 18 ordered the release of Perarivalan, who had served over 30 ꦗyears in jail.
Gandhi💖 was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.
Reaction from Congress
The Congress on Friday termed "totally unacceptable and completely erroneous" the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of six convicts serving👍 a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and said the apex court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue.
In a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the decision of the Supreme Court to free the rema♐ining killers of the former prime minister is "totally unacceptable and completely erroneous".
"The Congress party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in ꦗconsonance with the spirit of India on this issue," he said.
(with PTI inputs)
