No freedom for Rajiv Gandhi killers as Centre rejects Tamil Nadu govt’s proposal

The Central government has turned down a proposal of the Tamil Nadu government to free seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The Hindu reported on Wednesday that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Tamil Nadu government that “since the matter is sub judice in (the) Supreme Court, it has no authority to release the prisoners.”

It is not the first time that the state government had approached the Centre seeking its views on its decision to remit the sentences of the convicts.

The Jayalalithaa government had first written to the erstwhile UPA government in February 2014.

An MHA official told the newspaper that they rejected the proposal after taking into consideration the opinion of the Law Ministry.

In its letter to the Centre, the state government had said, “The Government of Tamil Nadu has now received petitions from the convicts with requests to release them since they have spent more than 20 years in prison … the Government, after taking into consideration the petitions of the seven convicts, has decided to remit the sentences of life imprisonment as they have already served imprisonment for 24 years.”

The seven convicts are V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivalan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini.