India’s top court frees Rajiv Gandhi’s killers

Published November 11, 2022
In this file photo taken on May 19, 2022, people visit a memorial of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur. — AFP
In this file photo taken on May 19, 2022, people visit a memorial of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur. — AFP

India’s top court on Friday ordered the release of six people convicted over the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Gandhi was 46 when he was killed by a woman suicide bomber at an election rally in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in 1991.

The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Sri Lankan armed separatist group.

India’s supreme court said the convicts were being released based on their “satisfactory conduct” in prison and that they had served over three decades of jail time.

The six — three of whom had been condemned to death before their sentences were commuted in 2014 — are the last still in prison for the assassination.

Earlier this year, the court ordered the release of another convict who had been initially sentenced to hang, AG Perarivalan, citing good conduct.

Gandhi became India’s youngest prime minister after his mother and predecessor Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

The family’s Congress party dominated Indian politics for decades and Rajiv’s widow Sonia remains the most powerful figure in the organisation, while their son Rahul is seen as current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main political opponent.

Rajiv Gandhi’s killing was largely seen as a response to his move to send Indian forces to Sri Lanka in 1987 to disarm the Tamil rebels.

India later withdrew its troops after losing more than 1,000 of them in fights with the rebels.

The release of the convicts has been the subject of much debate in India, and Congress condemned the court decision as “totally unacceptable” and “completely erroneous”.

“It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue,” the party said, tweeting a statement by senior member Jairam Ramesh.

But India has a significant Tamil population of its own, and state governments in Tamil Nadu have repeatedly called for the convicts to be freed.

Earlier this year, current Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin tweeted a picture of him hugging Perarivalan in Chennai after his release.

Gandhi’s son has over the years spoken about how he and his sister Priyanka had forgiven their father’s killers.

“We were very upset and hurt and for many years we were quite angry,” the Indian Express newspaper quoted Rahul as saying in 2018.

But they had since forgiven them, he said, “in fact, completely”.

Opinion

Editorial

Anti-women state
Updated 25 Nov, 2024

Anti-women state

GLOBALLY, women are tormented by the worst tools of exploitation: rape, sexual abuse, GBV, IPV, and more are among...
IT sector concerns
25 Nov, 2024

IT sector concerns

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ambitious plan to increase Pakistan’s IT exports from $3.2bn to $25bn in the ...
Israel’s war crimes
25 Nov, 2024

Israel’s war crimes

WHILE some powerful states are shielding Israel from censure, the court of global opinion is quite clear: there is...
Short-changed?
Updated 24 Nov, 2024

Short-changed?

As nations continue to argue, the international community must recognise that climate finance is not merely about numbers.
Overblown ‘threat’
24 Nov, 2024

Overblown ‘threat’

ON the eve of the PTI’s ‘do or die’ protest in the federal capital, there seemed to be little evidence of the...
Exclusive politics
24 Nov, 2024

Exclusive politics

THERE has been a gradual erasure of the voices of most marginalised groups from Pakistan’s mainstream political...