Six men and a woman — both Indians and Sri Lankans — convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case will be freed, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa Wednesday announced in a decision that prompted Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to observe that his father did not get justice.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister told the assembly that the government has decided to release convicts V. Sriharan alias Murugan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar (Sri Lankans) and A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu, Nalini and Ravichandran (Indians).
All seven had been in prison since 1991, the year a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew up former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally near Chennai.
An emotional Rahul Gandhi said: “The prime minister gave his life… (but the) prime minister does not get justice.”
“My father will not come back but it is a matter of the country, not of my family or my father.”
“If some one kills the prime minister and he is released, how will the common man get justice,” he wondered at a gathering in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
—IANS