The Centre on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of its order for the premature release of six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The government said that the top court passed the order without affording it adequate opportunity for hearing despite it being a necessary party to the case.
The government also highlighted the alleged procedural lapse, saying the convicts seeking remission did not formally implead the Centre as a party which resulted in its non-participation in the case.
The Supreme Court in its order on November 11 set free Nalini Sriharan and five other remaining convicts, who are serving life term for about three decades in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, noting that its earlier order releasing another convict A.G. Perarivalan was equally applicable to them.
Nalini, the longest-serving woman prisoner in the country, was released from the special prison for women in Vellore while her husband Murugan—a Sri Lankan national—along with another convict Santhan, also from Sri Lanka, were released from the Vellore prison.
Besides them, two other Sri Lankan nationals—Robert Payas and Jayakumar—were released from the Puzhal prison in Chennai. All the four were taken to the special refugee camp in Tiruchirappalli to be lodged there.
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber named Dhanu at a poll rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on the night of May 21, 1991.