RP Ravichandran, one of the six persons convicted for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was released Sunday from the Madurai central jail. After his release from prison, he requested people to see them as victims and not as terrorists or killers.
Speaking to news agency ANI after his release, Ravichandran said: "People of North India should see us as victims instead of terrorists or killers. Time and power determine who is a terrorist or a freedom fighter but time will judge us as innocent, even if we bear the blame for being terrorists."
As reported earlier, soon after being released, Nalini Sriharan, another convict in the case, thanked people of Tamil Nadu for supporting her. "I am thankful to the people of Tamil Nadu who supported me for 32 years. I thank both the State and Union Government. I will speak about the rest in Chennai tomorrow during the Press Meet. Supreme Court lawyers will also speak tomorrow," she said.
Nalini and the other accused were released after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the immediate release of the six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The court gave its order in a petition moved by Nalini and Ravichandran. The convicts had spent over three decades in prison.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, where he was campaigning for the local Congress candidate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections held that year.