Indian president refuses to pardon seven lifers in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the Tamil Nadu government’s request to release the seven prisoners convicted for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991.

Kovind told the state government that the “Centre doesn’t concur with its view” to release the prisoners.

“The President has rejected the Tamil Nadu government’s plea to free the prisoners on the advice of the Home Ministry. This has been conveyed to the State. The assassins of the former Prime Minister of India cannot walk free under any circumstances,” The Hindu quoted a top home ministry official as saying.

The president is bound by the advice of his council of ministers in such matters.

In the last four years, the Tamil Nadu government had written twice to the home ministry to pardon the convicts and release them on humanitarian grounds.

Tamil nationalist pressure

The Tamil Nadu government had been under pressure from Tamil nationalist groups sympathetic to Sri Lankan Tamils to get the convicts released.

One of the arguments in favour of release was that the convicts were not the actual murderers but only accessories in the plot. The actual assassin, Dhanu the suicide bomber, and the main plotters, Sivarasan and Subha, had died by suicide.

Among the convicts, Sriharan alias Murugan alone had a major role in the plot. He was a Sri Lankan Tamil while most others were Indian Tamils from Tamil Nadu.

The assassin and the plotters belonged to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They killed Rajiv Gandhi because he, as Prime Minister of India, entered into an accord with the Sri Lankan government in July 1987 to end the Tamil separatist war and provide a political settlement of the Tamil question with a united Sri Lanka.

But the LTTE, wanting a separate Tamil Eelam, opposed the accord and went to war with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in October 1987 in which thousands of Tamils and more than 1,200 Indian soldiers were killed and 3,500 were wounded.

Nalini. Reuters

The IPKF was withdrawn in March 1990 following an ultimatum given by Sri Lankan President R Premadasa, who was then in good terms with the LTTE and against the Indian intervention.

Apprehensive about Rajiv Gandhi’s return to power in the 1991 Indian parliamentary elections, the LTTE plotted to assassinate him. He was killed by suicide bomber Dhanu at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, 40 km from Chennai on May 21, 1991.

Tamil Nadu  government’s actions

On Feb 14, following the Supreme Court’s directions, the Ministry of Home Affairs sought details on eight grounds from the State to “facilitate further” its request to release the convicts.

It asked the State to furnish details such as the “physical and mental status of the convicts,” their “economic and social background” and the previous cases registered against them.

The convicts are V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivalan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini.

On Jan 23, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court gave the home ministry three months to decide on Tamil Nadu’s proposal to remit the sentences of the life-term convicts.

The Centre moved court against the State’s proposal, which dates back to Feb 19, 2014, where it said the State had decided to remit their sentences as they had already served more than 20 years in prison.

Under Section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the State government has to consult the Centre before releasing prisoners who were tried by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or under a central legislation.

On Mar 2, 2016, then Tamil Nadu chief secretary K Gnanadesikan sent another communication to the home ministry that it had received petitions from the convicts with requests to release them since they have spent more than 20 years in prison.

“The Government, after taking into consideration the petitions of the seven convicts, has decided to remit the sentences of life imprisonment as they have already served imprisonment for 24 years,” Gnanadesikan's letter said.

In December 2015, the Supreme Court said the State government has no power to release the convicts without the Centre’s concurrence.