‘Totally unacceptable’: Congress 'criticises' as Supreme Court sets free Rajiv Gandhi's killers

The Congress on Friday described the Supreme Court's decision to free the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as “totally unacceptable”, and “completely erroneous”.

“The Supreme Court's decision to free the remaining killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi is unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress Party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue,” Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran, serving life sentence in the assassination case of Rajiv Gandhi.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna said the judgment of the court in the case of AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.

"In so far as the applicants before us are concerned, their death sentences were commuted to life on account of delay...We direct that all the appellants are deemed to have served their sentence...The applicants are thus directed to be released unless required in any other case," the bench said.

Nalini and Ravichandran had moved the top court seeking premature release.

Both of them had challenged a June 17 order of the Madras high court, which rejected their pleas for early release, and cited the apex court judgment ordering the release of co-convict Perarivalan.

Nalini, Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar were sentenced to life terms in the case.

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

(With inputs from PTI)