Can’t release Rajiv killers as proposed by TN: Centre
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com
New Delhi:
The Centre has turned down the proposal of Tamil Nadu government for release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and told the Supreme Court on Friday that freeing would set a very wrong precedent.
The Centre took the decision on the direction of the apex court which had in January asked it to take a call on the proposal submitted by Tamil Nadu in 2016. Placing the government’s decision before a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and K M Joseph, additional solicitor general Pinky Anand and advocate Rajesh Ranjan said the Centre is not agreeable to the state government’s proposal.
Rajiv case convicts don’t deserve any leniency: Centre
With the Supreme Court ruling that the state government cannot remit the sentence of a convict in cases probed by a central agency, the Centre’s approval was mandatory for releasing the late PM’s killers as the case was probed by the CBI.
“The central government, in pursuance of section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, does not concur to the proposal of Tamil Nadu government contained in the communication letter dated March 2, 2016 for grant of further remission of sentence to these seven convicts,” the government said in its report.
The seven convicts are, V Sriharan @Murgan, T Suthendreraja @Santhan, A G Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini. All convicts are lodged in the Central Prison (Vellore) in Tamil Nadu.
Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were awarded the death sentence by a TADA court which was upheld by the apex court but on February 18, 2014 the same court commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of 11 years’ delay in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre. A day after the apex court order, the Tamil Nadu government decided to remit their sentences along with that of Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran to pave the way for them to get out of jail.
The Centre said in its reply that the convicts did not deserve any leniency as they committed an act of exceptional depravity and it was an “unparallel act in the annals of crimes committed in the country”.
The case involves the killing of a former Prime Minister who was brutally assassinated in pursuance of diabolical plot carefully conceived and executed by a foreign terrorist organization. The killing brought the Indian democratic process to a grinding halt as the Lok Sabha elections in some states had to be postponed, it said.
SOME RESPITE: The court had commuted the death sentence of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment
AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com
New Delhi:
The Centre has turned down the proposal of Tamil Nadu government for release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and told the Supreme Court on Friday that freeing would set a very wrong precedent.
The Centre took the decision on the direction of the apex court which had in January asked it to take a call on the proposal submitted by Tamil Nadu in 2016. Placing the government’s decision before a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and K M Joseph, additional solicitor general Pinky Anand and advocate Rajesh Ranjan said the Centre is not agreeable to the state government’s proposal.
Rajiv case convicts don’t deserve any leniency: Centre
With the Supreme Court ruling that the state government cannot remit the sentence of a convict in cases probed by a central agency, the Centre’s approval was mandatory for releasing the late PM’s killers as the case was probed by the CBI.
“The central government, in pursuance of section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, does not concur to the proposal of Tamil Nadu government contained in the communication letter dated March 2, 2016 for grant of further remission of sentence to these seven convicts,” the government said in its report.
The seven convicts are, V Sriharan @Murgan, T Suthendreraja @Santhan, A G Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini. All convicts are lodged in the Central Prison (Vellore) in Tamil Nadu.
Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were awarded the death sentence by a TADA court which was upheld by the apex court but on February 18, 2014 the same court commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of 11 years’ delay in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre. A day after the apex court order, the Tamil Nadu government decided to remit their sentences along with that of Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran to pave the way for them to get out of jail.
The Centre said in its reply that the convicts did not deserve any leniency as they committed an act of exceptional depravity and it was an “unparallel act in the annals of crimes committed in the country”.
The case involves the killing of a former Prime Minister who was brutally assassinated in pursuance of diabolical plot carefully conceived and executed by a foreign terrorist organization. The killing brought the Indian democratic process to a grinding halt as the Lok Sabha elections in some states had to be postponed, it said.
SOME RESPITE: The court had commuted the death sentence of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to life imprisonment
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