The Supreme Court on Friday, 11 November, directed that six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case be released before completion of their life imprisonment term. The Congress party has strongly criticised the court's decision.
“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,” a bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna were quoted as saying.
The convicts – Nalini Sriharan, Murugan alias Sriharan, Robert Pais, R P Ravichandran, Jayakumar, and Santhan had been serving life sentence in the case. Nalini and Ravichandran had moved the top court seeking premature release after the Madras High Court had rejected their pleas in June.