Why did Centre sit on killer's mercy plea?: TN

NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday questioned the Centre's opposition to the release of seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and told the Supreme Court that it had never protested the state's decision to commute the death sentence of Nalini, another convict in the case, to life term 15 years ago.
Appearing for TN, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu that mercy petitions of three of the condemned prisoners - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were pending with the UPA governments for 10 years.
"Why did the Centre, which is objecting to remission of sentence, not reject the mercy petitions of these condemned prisoners for 10 years? If the assassination was such a heinous crime against the nation, why did the mercy petitions gather dust in a section officer's desk as is admitted by the Centre?" Dwivedi asked. He said the SC had on February 18 last year commuted the death penalties of these three to life term on finding that the Centre sat on their mercy petitions. The state decided to grant remission of sentence to these three and four other lifers in the case only after the SC's decision, he added.
Dwivedi told the bench, also comprising Justices F M I Kalifulla, P C Ghose, A M Sapre and U U Lalit, that these convicts had been in prison for the last 23 years and pleaded that it was the sole jurisdiction of the state to grant remission of sentence, even in cases investigated by central agencies. "After a convict serves out 14 years, penal part of the punishment gets fulfilled and reformation process kicks in. And these convicts have been in jail for the last 23 years," he said.
Dwivedi said successive Congress-led UPA governments kept the mercy petitions pending because of the unanimous view of all Tamil Nadu MLAs and MPs, cutting across party lines, against their execution. "The state is not disputing that it is a serious case. But it is the popular view that these convicts have been punished enough for their indirect role in the assassination and should be released after long period of incarceration," he said.
The Centre had termed Rajiv's assassination at an election rally on May 21, 1991 at TN's Sriperumbudur as a crime against the nation and challenged the TN government's decision on February 19, 2014 to grant remission of sentence to the seven convicts and release them. TN said, "Another apprehension is that they will run away to Sri Lanka. On a lighter side, it will be good if they run away. The government can issue a red corner notice to prevent their entry into India."