New Delhi: The Congress reacted sharply to the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to set free five men and one woman convicted of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The party said it was most unfortunate that the apex court had not “acted in consonance with the spirit of India”.
General Secretary in-charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, said: “The Supreme Court’ decision to free the remaining killers of former PM Rajiv Gandhi is unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress criticises it and finds it wholly untenable.”
The top court on Friday ordered the early release of Nalini Sriharan, her husband Murugan and four other men, who were serving life terms for the 1991 death of Congress Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
The top court observed that the convicts had spent over three decades in jail and that their behavior during incarceration was satisfactory.
Incidentally in March 2008, Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi had met Nalini Sriharan in the Vellore prison — in order to come to terms with the “loss and violence” she had experienced.
In response to queries about her mother Sonia Gandhi trying to commute Nalini’s initial death sentence to life, Priyanka had said that she didn’t believe in anger, hatred and violence, and couldn’t allow these things to “overpower my life”.
Nalini also spoke of that meeting in her book “Rajiv Murder: Hidden Truths and Priyanka-Nalini Meeting”.
“Why did you do it?” Priyanka asked Nalini before breaking down. Then she reportedly gave the convict a patient hearing.
In an interview to The Hindu in September, 2016, Nalini had said the day 18 March, 2008 was special to her, “for it brought a ray of hope that the family of Rajiv Gandhi would, some day, believe in her innocence”.
Nalini found solace in that encounter with Priyanka, she told The Hindu, as it “cleansed” her of the insults and accusations targeted at her.
The meeting was life-changing for Nalini, she told the paper, adding she could not believe that Priyanka Gandhi had come to meet her. “Ennakku onrum theriyadhamma (I do not know anything),” was among the first sentences that Nalini reportedly said after the initial shock had worn off.
Also read: How Rajiv Gandhi, ‘such a nice man’, won and ruined India’s biggest mandate