Chennai: "I respect the Supreme Court judgment," said former CBI officer Karthikeyan, who led Special Investigation Team to probe Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, about Perarivalan's release. However, he said that none of them were innocent.
Talking to The Hindu, CBI officer Karthikeyan said, this is not another murder, it was not just the family of Rajiv Gandhi that was aggrieved but also those families that lost their family member in the blast.
Three SC judges upheld the verdict after hearing the case for three months and it was not that any of them were innocent, he said.
Meanwhile, Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict S Nalini's counsel M Radhakrishnan also said that the Supreme Court judgment on Perarivalan, was a "big disappointment" but on a different line.
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According to IANS, The Counsel for Nalini said, "The Supreme Court has said that neither the President Under Article 72, nor the Governor under Article 161, can take unilateral decisions on mercy petitions without the aid and advice of the council of ministers concerned. Therefore we were expecting a decision on these lines in Perarivalan case also."
He also said that the release of Perarivalan may force all the other six convicts to approach the Supreme Court seeking similar relief and that it would become difficult for them to convince the High Court that it too could order such release by exercising its power under Article 226 (writ jurisdiction) of the constitution.
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Radhakrishnan said that the legal team was waiting for the Supreme Court judgment copy on Perarivalan to find out whether it had provided any scope for the High Court also to order the release of the convicts. He said that legal team of Nalini will plan further strategies after reading the verdict properly.
(With IANS inputs)