Indian Supreme Court releases Rajiv Gandhi’s killers

Congress calls the decision totally unacceptable and completely erroneous

Indian Supreme Court has ordered the release of six convicted in the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The court has released the convicts, who had served over 30 years in jail on their satisfactory conduct in prison. Sri Lankan, armed separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was involved in the assassination attempt.

Congress has condemned the decision terming it as totally unacceptable and completely erroneous.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh stated in a tweet that it was most unfortunate that the Supreme Court had not acted in accordance with the spirit of India.

The debate has started in India over the release of convicts.

Three of the six who were condemned to death before their sentences were commuted in 2014 and are the last still in prison for the assassination. Another convict AG Perarivelan was released by the court order earlier this year.

While on the other side the state governments in Tamil Nadu repeatedly called that convicts should be freed. Even the Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin had tweeted his picture with Perarivelan who was released earlier.

Gandhi was killed by a woman suicide bomber in 1991 in the state of Tamil Nadu at the age of 46. The killing was largely seen as a response to his move to send Indian forces to Sri Lanka in 1987 for disarming the Tamil rebels.

Rajiv Gandhi had become the youngest Indian prime minister after the assassination of his mother Indra Gandhi who was killed by her Sikh bodyguard in 1984. The Congress party of the Gandhi family dominated Indian politics for decades until Rahul Gandhi was faced with current Indian PM Narendra Modi of the Bhartiya Janata Party.