CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday lambasted the DMK for its duplicity over the release of seven convicts of Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and accused that the DMK was staging a political drama on this issue to gain the sympathy of the people in the ensuing Assembly elections.
“The DMK, which boasts itself of functioning for the welfare of the Tamils, never answered a question why it had failed to recommend the commutation of death sentence of all the four convicts when it had an opportunity to do so in 2000 when the party was in power and why it recommended the commutation of the sentence of Nalini alone,” the Chief Minister said responding to the issue raised by a member during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.
Referring to the statement of the Leader of Opposition, MK Stalin, while staging a walkout from Governor's address on February 2, that they were boycotting the session just because the delay in the release of these seven convicts, Palaniswami said, “Seven Ministers including Deputy Leader of the Opposition Durai Murugan, who had signed the State Cabinet recommendation denying commutation of death sentence to three convicts including Perarivalan on April 19, 2000, are members of this House till today. People are witnessing the facts as to which government strove for the release of these seven convicts and who stood against it.”
Recalling the origin of the issue, the Chief Minister said n the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court, on May 11, 1999, confirmed the death sentence for four -- Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan while commuted the death sentence to life sentence for three - Robert Pias, Jayakumar, Ravichandran. Later, the then State Governor rejected the mercy petitions filed by the four persons for whom the SC had confirmed the death sentence. In the appeal, the Madras High Court directed that fresh decisions should be taken on their mercy petition after getting the views of the State Cabinet. Based on this, the then DMK regime discussed the matter in the State Cabinet chaired by the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on April 19, 2000. The meeting was attended by 24 Ministers.
The State Cabinet, considering the view expressed by Karunanidhi, had decided to recommend to the Governor that the death sentence for Nalini alone could be commuted in view of the fact that her girl child would be orphaned if she dies. The Cabinet also decided to recommend that the Governor could reject the mercy petitions of three others -- Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan. The Governor accepted the Cabinet's recommendations and accordingly, G.Os were issued by the DMK regime.
Following this, the three convicts filed a mercy petition before the President on April 26, 2000, and these petitions were rejected by the President on August 12, 2011, based on the advice of the UPA-DMK government at the Centre.
However, after the change of guard took place in 2011, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa moved a resolution in the State Assembly on August 29, 20011, to commute the death sentence of these three convicts as a life sentence and forwarded the resolution to the President. However, the UPA government led by Congress-DMK did not take any decision on this resolution and the DMK had failed to exert any pressure on the Centre for taking a decision. Later, the SC, on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of these three convicts into a life sentence and ruled that they have to undergo this sentence till their lifetime.
Following the SC verdict, Arputham Ammal, mother of Perarivalan called on the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa urged her to release Perarivalan. After this, Jayalalithaa, on February 19, 2014, moved a resolution for releasing all the seven convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Also, on the same day, the State Cabinet decided to release these seven convicts under Section 432 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Since the assassination case was investigated by the CBI, the State government sought its view within three days about the release of these convicts. But the then Congress-led government at the Centre challenged the State government's decision and filed a petition before the SC. At that time, the DMK was extending issue-based support to the Congress-led government. "Had the DMK and Congress thought of helping the release of these convicts, they could have avoided challenging the AIADMK government's decision before the SC to facilitate the release of the convicts at least at this stage. But they did not," the Chief Minister pointed out.
After a long legal battle by the AIADMK, the SC on April 18, 2018, said, "An application under Article 161 of the Constitution has been filed before the Governor of Tamil Nadu by Perarivalan. Naturally, the authority concerned will be at liberty to decide the said application as deemed fit." Following this, the State Cabinet meeting chaired by him on September 9, 2018, had recommended to the Governor to release these seven convicts. So, it is the successive AIADMK governments which have been taking every step for the release of these convicts.
"The DMK is staging a political drama on this issue to gain the sympathy of the people in the ensuing Assembly elections. Had the recommendation of the State Cabinet during the DMK regime been enforced, the three convicts except Nalini would have been hanged already. But the AIADMK government has been still striving for their release. Very recently, on January 29, I have reiterated the release of these convicts. I am confident that the Governor will take a good decision on this issue soon.