The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of six convicts including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, serving life imprisonment in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
A bench of BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna passed the order while taking into consideration the good conduct of convicts in the prison.
The apex court noted, “Nalini has been behind bars for over three decades and her conduct has also been satisfactory. She has a PG diploma in Computer Application. Ravichandran’s conduct has also been found to be satisfactory and he has undertaken various studies during his incarceration including a PG diploma in Arts. He has also collected various amounts for charity.”
The top court released Nalini, Ravichandran, Robert Payas, Jayakumar, S Raja, and Shriharan. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.
Meanwhile, the Congress termed “‘totally unacceptable and completely erroneous” the Supreme Court’s order.
In a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of the former prime minister is ”totally unacceptable and completely erroneous”.
”The Congress party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue,” he said.
Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran had moved the top court seeking premature release.
Both of them had challenged a June 17 order of the Madras High Court, which rejected their pleas for early release, and cited the apex court judgment ordering the release of co-convict Perarivalan.
