Four Rajiv Gandhi assassins seek release

Chennai, May 20: Sixteen years have passed since former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber and nearly the same period has passed since seven convicts.

But, four of them languishing in the prison, are hoping against hope for their release. Their petitions seeking release from jail were pending before the Tamil Nadu government.

At a time when Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was celebrating his Golden Jubilee in the State Assembly, they fervently hoped that they would be set free and at last walk out as free bird from the Vellore Central Prison.

However, their names did not figure in the list when the government ordered the release of some life convicts who have completed 14 years jail term to mark the occasion.

The former prime minister was assassinated by a human bomb on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur near here, where he had gone to address an election rally. Eighteen others were killed and 43 seriously injured in the blast.

All the four accused were sentenced to death by the Designated Court in Chennai. However, the Supreme Court had commuted it to life in respect of Robert Payas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran, while Nalini, was condemned to gallows. Later, her death sentence was commuted to life by the then President K R Narayanan following the intervention of Ms Sonia Gandhi, AICC President and widow of Rajiv Gandhi.

While acquitting 19 others, the apex court had also upheld the death sentence on Sriharan, alias Murugan, husband of Nalini, T Suthendraraja, alias Chinna Santhan, a hardcore LTTE militant and G Perarivalan, alias Arivu, a local Tamil. Their clemency petitions are still pending before the President. Senior Counsel S Duraisamy, who had argued for Nalini and others in the trial court, told sources on the eve of Rajiv's 16th anniversary of death that the four accused stood ''100 per cent chance of their release''.

Their conduct in prison was excellent and it was evident that they were allowed to pursue their studies. ''Only the accused who maintain good conduct and character are allowed to take up studies in prisons,'' he said.

As all the four accused had a clean record, there should not be any difficulty in their release.

Nalini, the only accused who was present when Dhanu, the suicide bomber blew up Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally at Sriperumbudur about 45 km from here, was arrested on June 14, 1991 and she would be completing 16 years of imprisonment next month.

Robert Payas and Jayakumar, the two Sri Lankan Tamils who were living in suburban Porur and Kodungaiyur, respectively were also arrested in June and they would also be completing 16 years of detention next month. Ravichandran, founder of the Tamil Nadu retrieval troops, was arrested in December 1991, and also completed his life term in jail.

During their detention, the accused underwent a reformation and all of them completed Post Graduation, thanks to the distance education programme of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Mr Duraisamy said. ''As per justice, law and dharma, they should be released as they had completed their life term',' he observed.

''Ever since they completed 14 years in jail, we have been periodically submitting petitions to the government seeking their release. But there was no response so far. Legally they are entitled for the release. But the government was sitting on the files as it does not want to pass any legal order. So we are thinking of exercising the option of going to the court to secure their release,'' he added.

Since the case was handled by the CBI, the State government should get the Centre's nod for the release of three accused except Nalini.

''But till now they have not approached the Centre in this regard. In respect of Nalini, there was no statutory obligation on the part of the State to seek the Centre's view as her death sentence had already been commuted,'' Mr Duraisamy reasoned.

However, police officials contended that no accused, sentenced to life, could demand as a matter of right that he or she should be released after completion of 14 years. ''Life sentence means imprisonment till life time,'' the lawyer noted.

UNI