New Delhi : The Centre on Monday filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The Centre has already secu-red a stay from the apex court on the AIADMK government’s decision to release three other convicts whose capital punishment was commuted by the SC.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P. Satha sivam agreed to hear the Centre’s plea and fixed the hearing on February 27. The Centre has sought stay on the release of convicts Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.
Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra told the bench that the "substantial" petition containing names of all seven convicts has been filed on Monday and the case be heard on an urgent basis. The apex court had on February 20 stayed the release of three convicts Murugan, Santhan and Arivu whose death sentence was commuted to life term by it on February 18 in the case, saying there had been procedural lapses on the part of the state government on the decision to release them.
The Centre’s move came after the apex court had said it could file a fresh petition regarding the other four prisoners whose sentence has also been remitted by the Tamil Nadu government. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had on February 19 said that the state government would release the seven prisoners, including the trio who were given relief by the top court in the assassination case.
Santhan, Murugan and Arivu are currently lodged in the Central Pris-on, Vellore and they are in jail since 1991. The other four are undergoing life sentence for their role in the former PM’s assassination on May 21, 1991.
