Four Rajiv assassins seek release

Chennai, May 20 (UNI) At a time when Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was celebrating his Golden Jubilee in the State Assembly, four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were hoping against hope that they would walk free after 16 years in jail with their petitions pending before the Tamil Nadu governmment.

The convicts fervently hoped that they would be set free and walk out 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 Chief Minister's felicitation.

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.

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