On November 24, DMK president M.K. Stalin met Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhavan, and urged him to take a decision on the release of seven life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case.
Thus, of all the 26 accused who were sentenced to death in 1998 by TADA Court, 19 were released and 7 are in jail undergoing life sentence. From then on, there used to be chorus from the separatist lobby to release the remaining 7 convicts also on the ‘humanitarian’grounds citing ‘passage of time’.
Anyone with the basic common sense would wonder, as to how ‘humanitarian’ consideration can be extended to the dreaded criminals, who conspired to assassinate the ex-Prime Minister of our country on our soil in the most horrendous way. It has to be noted that along with the ex-PM, 14 others were also killed including policemen, politicians and other common citizens who were present at the site. The TADA court rightly pronounced death sentence to all the accused, however, none of them went to the gallows till now and are not expected in future too. This itself is an irony that death sentence is not meted out to the criminals who had committed the crime of killing several human beings. Above all, asking for the release of the remaining 7 convicts in jail would be a mockery of our justice system. What is the message we would be sending to anti-national forces ? Are we not signalling the anti-national forces that we are a weak State and the perpetrators would be handled with kid glove if caught in future as well ?
This is not a personal dispute between family of ex-Prime Minister and the convicts. A family member of ex-Prime Minister cannot decide to ‘forgive’ the criminals and this cannot be the basis for further discussions. She does not have any locus-standi or authority to either forgive or punish the criminals. Only our judicial system has the authority. This is a matter concerning national security and challenge to our sovereignty.
Though the chorus has started with the demand for release of Perarivalan now, it is sure to get extended to the release of other 6 convicts also later. People of this country would naturally expect that the Governor of Tamil Nadu would dismiss forthwith, the pending petitions for the release of these 7 criminals.
Will the Hon’ble Governor do this and reinforce the rule of law ?
