New Delhi: The clamour for release of Rajiv Gandhi's killers has once again gained momentum after PMK founder S Ramadoss along with his son and former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week and pressed for their early release.
In a memorandum to Modi, Ramadoss had argued that the Supreme Court last year had allowed the Tamil Nadu government to decide on the release of seven convicts - Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas, Ravichandran, Jayakumar and Nalini. The Tamil Nadu government, later on September 9, 2018, had passed a Cabinet resolution recommending to Governor Banwarilal Purohit for the release of convicts, but the latter's office has been delaying the matter, he said.
Reacting strongly to such attempts by political parties to repeatedly intervene in the legal system, the Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress said it would strongly oppose any move to release any of the seven convicts. "There are so many prisoners including convicts in prisons of Tamil Nadu. Why is there a motivated demand for releasing Rajiv's killers only?" said Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri. He said any decision to release the convicts would set a "bad precedent" and "highly disturb the social order and peace in Tamil Nadu".
Questioning the bids of "intervention in the justice system", Alagiri said the law of the land should be allowed to take its own course. It is for the court to decide on the matter, he added. The late prime minister was assassinated on May 21, 1991 during an election meeting at Sriperumbudur near Chennai by a suicide bomber of the banned LTTE.
"Tamils all over the world expected that the governor would take a decision shortly. But even after one year and one month of receiving the letter, the office of Tamil Nadu governor has not taken any decision and is procrastinating this matter. This has disappointed and distressed millions of Tamils all over the world," Ramadoss said. "It is rather unfair," he said, adding the seven convicts were in prison for the last 28 years and keeping them in jail any further without any strong reason would be a serious violation of the human rights. Rajiv's son Rahul have "said they have no objections to the release of seven Tamils," the PMK had said.
