Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami met state Governor Banwarilal Purohit and took up the issue of the release of all seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Minister D Jayakumar said.
Palaniswami called on the Governor soon after chairing a cabinet meet in Chennai, to reiterate a September 2018 cabinet resolution recommending release of the convicts.
“The CM took up (with the Governor) the release of the seven,” Jayakumar, who among others accompanied Palaniswami, said.
He urged the Governor to take a good decision and release all the convicts, in line with the September 2018, State Cabinet resolution recommending their release under Article 161 of the Constitution.
The Palaniswami-led cabinet had on 9 September, 2018, recommended the release of Murugan, Santhan, A G Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Nalini, all serving life terms in prison for over two decades.
The Court on a reply plea filed by the Centre on 21 January, granted a week’s time for the Governor to decide on the state government’s recommendation to release Perarivalan.
After Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Court that the Governor will decide, in three-four days, on the state government’s recommendation to release all the convicts in the case, the next day the court granted a week’s time to the Raj Bhavan to take a decision on the release.
While the state government’s recommendation for pardon to all the convicts has been pending for over two years, Perarivalan had moved the apex court to decide on the issue at the earliest.