National Desk:
The Supreme Court on Friday, November 11, directed the release of six accused, including Nalini and RP Ravichandran, who were serving life sentences in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The killers were serving life sentences in jail. Earlier, the court had also released the convict Perarivalan in this case on the same grounds.
Earlier, Nalini Sriharan, who was serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, had approached the Supreme Court seeking her premature release. Nalini challenged the June 17 order of the Madras High Court, which dismissed her plea for early release and ordered the release of co-convict AG Perarivalan, citing the Supreme Court's decision.
The High Court had on June 17 dismissed the petitions of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran, ordering their release without the concurrence of the state governor. The court, while dismissing their petitions, had said, "High Courts do not have the power to do so under Article 226 of the Constitution, while the Supreme Court has special power under Article 142."
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu by a female suicide bomber, identified at an election rally as Dhanu. In its May 1999 order, the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences of the four convicts Perarivalan, Murugan, Santhan and Nalini.
However, in 2014, it commuted Perarivalan's death sentence to life imprisonment on the basis of an 11-year delay in deciding their mercy petitions along with that of Santhan and Murugan. Nalini's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2001 on the ground that she had a daughter.
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