New Delhi (The Hawk): Six prisoners serving life sentences in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, including Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran, were ordered to be released early by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna's bench ruled that the ruling in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the defendants, is equally relevant to their situation.
"The applicants who are before us had their death sentences converted to life sentences due to delay.
We order that the sentences of all the appellants be deemed served.
The applicants are therefore instructed to be released unless otherwise necessary "said the bench.
In an application to the Supreme Court, Nalini and Ravichandran requested an early release.
Both of them had appealed a Madras High Court ruling from June 17 that denied their requests for early release and cited the Supreme Court's decision ordering the release of co-defendant Perarivalan.
In this case, life sentences were imposed on Nalini, Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas, and Jayakumar.
The top court had ordered Perarivalan's release on May 18 using its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution. Perarivalan had spent more than 30 years in prison.
Gandhi was killed by a female suicide bomber named Dhanu on the evening of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during a political rally.
Perarivalan, Murugan, Santhan, and Sriharan were four convicts whose death sentences had been upheld by the Supreme court in an order from May 1999.
However, in 2014, it modified Perarivalan's death sentence to life in prison together with that of Santhan and Murugan on the grounds that the decision on their mercy requests had taken too long. Because Nalini has a daughter, her death sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2001.
The Tamil Nadu government had previously supported Nalini and Ravichandran's early release, arguing that the governor must heed its 2018 recommendation to commute their life sentences.
(Inputs from Agencies)