The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the early release of 6 people including Nalini Sriharan and RB Ravichandran who are serving life imprisonment in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi murder case. The court noted that it had taken note of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet’s recommendation to quash their sentence.
Not only Nalini, Ravichandran, but also Shanthan, Murugan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar, who are involved in this case, will be released. In this order, the Supreme Court took into account the satisfactory behavior of the 6 petitioners during their imprisonment, their educational qualification, health and activities.
AG, one of the accused in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The judges’ session said that the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Perariwalan case will also apply to the case of these 6 people. The matter related to this in the Supreme Court Judges B. R. Kauai and B. V. Nagarathna was heard again on Friday before the session. At that time, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde for the petitioner Ravichandran side, advocate Ananda Selvam for Nalini, Chandan, Jayakumar, senior advocate Gopal Sankara Narayanan for Robert Payas, advocate Prabhu Ramasubramaniam, advocate Mylaswamy for Murugan, Rakesh Dwivedi and George Aristotle for the Tamil Nadu government were present. ASG K.M., who appeared last time on behalf of the central government. Natraj was not present.
At that time, during the judges’ session, Rajiv asked whether the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release the accused was acceptable to all. For that
Rakesh Dwivedi, a senior lawyer for the Tamil Nadu government, said, ‘The recommendation of the Tamil Nadu government is for seven people including Perariwalan’. At that time, the judge asked whether the petitioners were in solitary confinement for 30 years. Nalini’s lawyer Ananda Selvam said, ‘If this case was tried in the Tada court, all the petitioners would have been kept in solitary confinement’.
Following that, the judges said that the petitioners would mention each name and consider their prison conduct, educational qualification and health of some. Moreover, the Supreme Court issued its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution in the case of Perariwalan, who had been imprisoned for more than 30 years, and the order issued on May 18 this year is applicable in this matter as well.
All 6 should be released: In this regard, the judges further said, ‘The court said that the governor is bound by the advice of the state cabinet in the matter of release of the appellant convicted under section 302. Undoubtedly, the Cabinet has decided to provide relief to all the petitioners in this case. Therefore, AG While acquitting Perariwalan, we are of the opinion that the important factors of this Court are applicable to the present petitioners. We hold that all the appellants have served their sentences for the offences. Therefore, we order that they (all 6) should be released unless required in any other case,” he said.
Affidavit: Earlier, two separate affidavits were filed in the Supreme Court by the Tamil Nadu government in this matter. It was reported that: The Governor will adhere to the advice of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet passed in 2018 to cancel the life sentences of Nalini Sriharan and RB Ravichandran, who were convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. That is, in the Cabinet meeting held on September 9, 2018, the Government of Tamil Nadu decided to consider the mercy petitions of the 7 convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and recommend the Governor to cancel their life sentences using the power given under Article 161 of the Constitution.
Thereafter, the recommendation was separately sent to the Governor of Tamil Nadu on September 11 of the same year for approval. Since then it has been pending in his office. It was pending in his office for over two-and-a-half years, after which the recommendation was finally forwarded by the Governor to the President on January 27, 2021. It was stated in the affidavit that no decision has been taken on it for the past one year and 9 months.