Tamil Nadu Parties Welcome Release Of Rajiv Case Convicts, Congress Sees Red

Welcoming release of convicts, Chief Minister Stalin said: "This judgment as well of the SC forms basis that Governors should not put decisions and resolutions of elected governments in back burner".

TN CM MK Stalin (File Photo)

Chennai/New Delhi: Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK and main opposition AIADMK welcomed the Supreme Court ruling, setting free the six Rajiv Gandhi case convicts, while the Congress party termed it unacceptable.

Welcoming the release of convicts, Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin said: "This judgment as well of the Supreme Court forms the basis that Governors should not put the decisions and resolutions of elected governments in the back burner".

The release of convicts was recommended to then Governor Banwarilal Purohit by the previous AIADMK government in 2018.

Stalin said the DMK championed the cause of their release while in Opposition too. After assuming power last year, his party-led government urged the Centre to release them, writing to then President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and backed the legal struggle for setting them free, he said.

The main opposition AIADMK took credit for their release saying its legal initiatives while helming the government over the past several years eventually led to their release. Their release is a "victory for the AIADMK," the party said.

The Congress party termed "totally unacceptable and completely erroneous," the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of the six remaining convicts serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi case.

The apex court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India, the party said. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri too opposed the release of convicts.

While the family of Nalini Sriharan expressed joy over the verdict, a survivor, Anusuya Daisy Ernest asked about justice for those killed and injured in the 1991 suicide bombing that assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A retired police officer, who still undergoes treatment for her pellet injuries, she asked: "What about justice for those killed and injured survivors in the 1991 suicide bombing that assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi?"

In Tamil Nadu, besides the Congress, both the BJP and right-wing outfits have all along opposed the release of Rajiv case convicts, while almost all other organisations have backed it.

The Congress said it disagreed with its former chief Sonia Gandhi, whose appeal helped in the commutation of death sentence of convict Nalini Sriharan, asserting that she was entitled to her personal views but the party's stand had been consistent on this over the years.

The party said it intended to take "all available remedies, be it review or any other form of legal redress".

Several Congress office-bearers attacked the Modi government over the issue with Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala asking whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government support the release of terrorists and will they get the court verdict reviewed.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber Dhanu, at a Congress poll rally.