SC orders release of all convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case


New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered to release from jail the remaining six convicts, currently serving life imprisonment, in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna handed out the order to free the convicts: Nalini, Santhan, Murugan, Sriharan, Robert Payas, and Ravichandran.

All the convicts as per the judgment will walk out if they are no longer required in any other case.

The court issued the order while considering the case of A G Perarivalan, another convict released in May, who served more than 30 years in jail.

The court ordered the release of Perarivalan by invoking special powers under the Constitution's Article 142, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Nalini, another convict in the case, sought same relief from the court citing the case of Pararivalan.

On May 21, 1991, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a bomb explosion carried out by an LTTE suicide bomber at an election campaign in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur.


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