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Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Convicts Freed, Sri Lankan Nationals Taken to Refugee Camp

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Convicts Freed, Sri Lankan Nationals Taken to Refugee Camp

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NEW DELHI, Nov 12: Five of the six remaining convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case walked out free from different jails in Tamil Nadu on Saturday evening following the Supreme Court’s order on Friday for their immediate release.

Nalini Sriharan, her husband and three other convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were released while the process for the release of one more convict was on and was expected to be released later in the day. Immediately after she was released from the special prison for women in Vellore, Nalini went to the Vellore central prison from where her husband V. Sriharan alias Murugan was released and became emotional upon seeing him.

Murugan, along with Santhan, both Sri Lankan nationals, were taken in a police vehicle following their release to the special refugee camp in Tiruchirappalli in the state. Two other Lankan nationals – Robert Payas and Jayakumar – released from the Puzhal prison here, were also taken Tiruchirappalli refugee camp. Another convict who was set free in May earlier, Perarivalan, along with his mother Arputhammal received the duo at the Puzhal prison.

It was not immediately clear if Nalini would stay in Chennai or join her daughter in London. “She will take a call on this,” her lawyer said. Asked about the fate of her husband Murugan, the lawyer said the state government would decide on deportation. Convict Santhan had already expressed his intent to return to Sri Lanka, he added.

Nalini said it was a new life for her and added that she would not be joining public life. “It’s a new life with my husband and daughter. I am not going to join public life. I thank Tamils for supporting me for more than 30 years. I thank both the state and central governments. I have spoken to my daughter,” she said in her first comments after coming out of jail.

While ordering their release, the Supreme Court had said the convicts had showed “satisfactory behaviour”, acquired degrees, written books, and had also participated in social service.

The Congress strongly objected to the Supreme Court order freeing Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins. It said the party did not agree with the views of Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul and Priyanka, who’ve been votaries of mercy to the convicts.

In the year 2000, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to a life term. Later in the year 2014, the sentence of the other six convicts were also reduced, and the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha recommended their release.

Former PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group during a public rally. It was seen as retaliation after he sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987, only to withdraw them after losing more than 1,200 men in battle.

 The decision, however, was welcomed by many in Tamil Nadu where their incarceration has been an emotive issue given many believe that the seven locals convicted were part of the plot without knowing its extent.

The court said its decision was based on the prisoners’ good behaviour and the release in May of AG Perarivalan, another person convicted in the case, saying that he was 19 years old at the time of arrest and had been jailed for more than 30 years, with 29 of those in solitary confinement.

(Manas Dasgupta)

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