CHENNAI: A day after granting 30 days ordinary leave for Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind urging him to accept the recommendation of the State cabinet on freeing seven convicts in the case.
Stating that majority of the political parties in the State have been requesting immediate release of the all the seven convicts as they have been incarcerated for about three decades, Stalin said the release of seven persons is also will of the people of the Tamil Nadu, adding that he noted that death sentence of four convicts including Nalini was commuted to life imprisonment.
Further, on September 9, 2018 the State government has recommended to the Governor for the remission of the rest of the sentence for all the seven convicts - S Nalini, Murugan, Santhan, A G Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and P Ravichandran and their early release.
The purported obstacle for exercise of the power of remission was the pending investigation by the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency of CBI. It has been clarified by the respective stands of the Union Government and CBI before the Supreme Court that there is connection between the remission of sentence and investigation.
Thereafter, the Governor forwarded the State government’s recommendation to the President, noted Stalin.
“These seven persons have already suffered untold hardship and agony in the past three decades and have paid a heavy price. There has already been an inordinate delay in the consideration of their pleas for remission,” said Stalin
Pointing out that during Covid 19 pandemic, Courts are also recognising the need to decongest prison, Stalin requested the President to accept the release of seven convicts immediately.