Tamil Nadu Parties Ask Governor To Decide On Rajiv Gandhi Case Convicts

Main opposition party DMK and PMK on Tuesday urged Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to expeditiously decide on the release of the seven Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts.

The reaction of the parties came after the Supreme Court expressed unhappiness over the pendency of a plea by AG Perarivalan with Mr Purohit for over two years.

One among the seven convicts, Perarivalan, serving life sentence, had sought pardon in his mercy petition.

DMK President MK Stalin, citing the displeasure of the top court on the matter, said "the Governor should expeditiously take a decision on the release of seven convicts, including Perarivalan."

Targeting the AIADMK government, he wanted it to urge Mr Purohit and not be a "mute spectator, at least from now onwards."

The Governor indefinitely delaying taking a decision on the release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case is "inhuman" and a transgression of his powers, he alleged in a Facebook post.

PMK founder leader S Ramadoss said the "words" of the top court has given a new ray of hope for their release.

The Governor has been delaying a decision on a September 9, 2018, Cabinet resolution, recommending the release of the seven convicts.

When a decision could be taken over a span of two weeks, delaying and not taking a decision despite the lapse of over two years was not acceptable, the party top leader said.

He said The Tamil Nadu government should clarify to Mr Purohit that the proposed release of the convicts has nothing to do with the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) probe.

The government should ensure that the Governor approved their release, he said.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi said, "We don't want to exercise our jurisdiction at this stage, but we are not happy that recommendation made by the government is pending for two years."

The bench was hearing a plea of 46-year-oldPerarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the CBI-led MDMA probe is completed.

The top court asked the counsel for petitioner Perarivalan whether the court can exercise its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to request the Governor to decide his plea of pardon filed under Article 161, which empowers a Governor to pardon a convict in any criminal case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)