Moments after the Supreme Court ordered the premature release of six convicts in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Congress on Friday termed the apex court’s verdict “totally unacceptable” and said that it was “unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirt of India.”
In a statement issued shortly after the decision, Congress general secretary incharge of communications Jairam Ramesh termed the verdict “erroneous” and “wholly untenable”.
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“The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress Party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable,” Ramesh said a statement posted on Twitter.
Ordering the release of Nalini Sriharan, Robert Pais, RP Ravichandran, Raja, Sriharan and Jaikumar, the division bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna said that the convicts had spent over 30 years in prison and their prison conduct was “satisfactory”.
“The appellants are directed to be set at liberty if not required in any other matter,” the apex court bench ordered. The bench said that their judgement was in consonance with the earlier SC order that had set AG Perarivalan, another convict in the same case, free.
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Citing the release of Perarivalan, Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran had moved the SC, challenging the June 17 Madras High Court order that had rejected their petitions for premature bail. All the convicts in the case were sentenced to life in prison.
Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide bomb attack during an election rally on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.