Rajiv Case: Centre Moves SC for Stay on Release of 4 Convicts

New Delhi: After having secured a stay on the release of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Centre today moved the apex court to prevent the implementation of the Tamil Nadu government's decision to set free four other convicts serving life imprisonment in the case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam agreed to hear the Centre's plea on February 27.

Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra told the bench that the "substantial" petition containing names of all seven convicts has been filed today 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.

It has sought to stay on the release of convicts Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar, and Ravichandran.

The Jayalalithaa government had on February 19 decided to set free all the seven convicts in the assassination case.

Santhan, Murugan, and Arivu are currently lodged in the Central Prison, Vellore, in Tamil Nadu and they have been in jail since 1991.

The other four are undergoing life sentences for their role in Gandhi's assassination on May 21, 1991, in Sriperumbudur.

The bench had on February 20 issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government, Inspector General of Prisons, Chennai, Superintendent of Central Prison, Vellore, and the convicts V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan and A G Perarivalan alias Arivu for March 6.