Rajiv Gandhi assassination case: Indian SC orders premature release of all 6 convicts

The Supreme Court of India on Friday ordered to set free all six convicts facing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The order included the release of Nalini, PR Ravichandran, Robert Pias, Suthendraraja, Jaykumar and Sriharan.

The bench comprising justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna passed the order while taking into consideration the case of A G Perarivalan, another convict in the case, who was released in May this year invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.

The top court noted that the criteria laid down for Perarivalan were made out even in the case of the remaining convicts.

The bench noted that the Tamil Nadu cabinet had recommended their release on September 9, 2018, and this opinion will be binding on the Governor before whom the convicts had filed remission pleas.

The bench also noted that the convicts have spent over three decades in prison and that their conduct in the prison was satisfactory observing they were found to have good conduct and all of them had acquired various degrees during their stay in jail.

Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber at a poll rally.