‘Rajiv case convicts would’ve been hanged if not for AIADMK’

‘Rajiv case convicts would’ve been hanged if not for AIADMK’

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  05.02.2021 

Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday said in the assembly that but for the AIADMK government’s sustained efforts, the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case would have been hanged by now.

“The DMK is staging a political drama to make people believe that they are fighting for the release of the seven convicts. Their aim is to gain public sympathy ahead of the assembly elections,” he said, referring to the opposition’s decision to boycott the assembly session citing delay in governor ordering their release.

He expressed confidence that the governor would take a “good decision” and give his stamp of approval to the TN cabinet’s decision taken on September 9, 2018, recommending the premature release of the seven convicts. “We are asking the governor to consider the cabinet’s decision whenever we meet him,” he said.

He criticised the DMK and its leader M K Stalin for carrying out a “misinformation campaign” regarding the issue. Seeking to set records straight, the CM said the DMK government, on August 19, 2000, had advised the governor to commute the death sentence of Nalini Sriharan and uphold the capital punishment of Sriharan, Shanthan and A G Perarivalan. The governor accepted the cabinet decision, said EPS. “If the order was implemented, they would have been executed by now,” he said and wondered why the DMK, when it was in power, did not pass a resolution to commute the death sentence.

Why didn’t the DMK pass a resolution to commute sentences of death row convicts when it was in govt, asked Palaniswami