Politics in Tamil Nadu took a new turn on Saturday with MK Stalin, Leader of the Opposition, who is also the president of the DMK, asking the AIADMK Government to make its stance clear on the refusal of Governor Banwarilal Purohit to toe the State’s line in releasing the seven assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who are serving life sentence in high security prisons.
There were reports in the local media that the Governor had informally conveyed to Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami that he was not inclined to agree with the Tamil Nadu Government’s recommendation to release the seven convicts undergoing life term in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case. There has been no denial from Raj Bhavan about this report.
The Union Home Ministry’s permission/approval is a must for releasing the seven accused because the case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) . All political parties barring the BJP have been demanding the release of the convicts as they have put up more than 20 years in prison.
The convicts too argue that life term convicts are released after 14 years and they too should be set free. Nalini Sriharan, her husband Sriharan alias Murugan, suthendraraja alias Santhan, Robert Payas, S Jayakumar, AG Perarivalan alias Arivu, Ravichandran alias Ravi are the seven accused undergoing life imprisonment in the case.
The trial court which heard the case had awarded death penalty to all 26 accused in the case. In May 1999, the Supreme Court commuted the sentence to life term for three (Payas, Ravikumar and Jayachandran) while conforming the death sentence for the other four and the rest were released.
The death sentence of Nalini was commuted to life term in April 2000 by the then Governor Fatima Beevi following the recommendation of the State Government. The Supreme Court in February 2014 commuted the death sentence of the other three to life term. Various NGOs and Tamil organizations in the State have been pressing for the release of the seven from prison pointing out that they have put in more than 25 years of imprisonment.
Since the BJP is the only political party to declare its opposition to the release of the convicts, a new Centre Vs State issue has cropped up. The DMK has been lambasting the AIADMK as the ‘slaves’ of the Centre despite the chief minister’s announcement that the two parties were mere electoral allies. Stalin’s challenge to the chief minister to make it known the stance of the AIADMK vis-Ã -vis the demand to set free the Rajiv Gandhi assassins has put the Congress in a tight spot. The party has not made its stance clear on the issue though senior party leaders have expressed their reservations privately.
Meanwhile , Vaiko, the MDMK leader who was elected to Rajya Sabha recently with the support of the Congress termed Governor’s action ‘very inhuman’. Vaiko is appearing for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in front of the tribunal for adjudicating whether there was any sufficient reason to continue the ban on the organization, which masterminded and perpetrated the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The MDMK leader said that there was no justification on the stance of the Centre to continue with the ban on the LTTE.