There is no change in the stand of the Tamil Nadu government, led by the DMK, in getting all the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case released, state Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram said on Monday. He said this to reporters when asked if there was any change in the government’s stand on the matter.
The government, in its counter-affidavit filed in the High Court to a plea by one of the convicts, Nalini, seeking premature release without the Governor’s approval, sought its dismissal, saying it was ‘bad’ in law. The previous AIADMK government, by way of a September 2018 Cabinet resolution, had recommended to the then Governor Banwarilal Purohit, the release of Murugan, Santhan, A G Perarivalan, P Jayakumar, Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Nalini– all convicted in the May 1991 assassination of the former Prime Minister at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, near here.
The AG filed the government’s counter-affidavit, in response to the petition filed by Nalini in 2020 seeking her premature release without the approval of the Governor, before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu. Nalini and others had filed various petitions seeking the same relief and they were dismissed by the High court and the Supreme Court, after holding no direction could be given to a State Governor as he enjoyed immunity under Article 361 of the Constitution, the counter pointed out and sought the dismissal of Nalini’s petition. The AG also told the bench that a similar petition from Perarivalan, pending before the Supreme Court, is coming up for hearing on December 7. The bench posted the matter after three weeks, with a direction to the government to file an additional affidavit. Perarivalan had approached the apex court for a direction to the Centre to furnish him a copy of the report of the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Authority (MDMA), which was tasked to probe the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
Meanwhile, responding to reporters’ queries whether there was any shift from the previous AIADMK’s government stance over the release of the seven convicts, the AG replied in the negative. “We are seeking the dismissal of the petition filed by Nalini seeking premature release, even without the consent of the State Governor, as the petition was `bad’ in law,” the AG replied.
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