NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, on Friday, ordered the release of all six remaining convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The six convicts – Nalini Sriharan, RP Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar – are serving live imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The Supreme Court bench that passed the order comprised Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna.
The Supreme Court, while passing the order of release of the six convicts, took into consideration the case of AG Perarivalan, another convict who was released in May.
Seven convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case.
The Supreme Court, in 1999, had sentenced four of the seven convicts to death.
On the other hand, the three other convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Later, in 2000, the death sentence of Nalini was commuted to life.
In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the other three death sentences.
Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at an election meeting in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
The LTTE used a suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, to carry out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others were killed in the explosion that followed, along with 43 others who were grievously injured.
The assassination was caught on film by a local photographer, Haribabu, whose camera and film was found intact at the site despite him also dying in the blast.