SC decision to free killers of ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi totally unacceptable, completely erroneous: Cong

The Congress on Friday termed ''totally unacceptable and completely erroneous'' the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of the six remaining convicts serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and said the apex court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India.

The Congress also said it disagreed with its former chief Sonia Gandhi, whose appeal helped in the commutation of death sentence of convict Nalini Sriharan, asserting that she was entitled to her personal views but the party's stand had been consistent on this over the years.

The party said it intended to take ''all available remedies, be it review or any other form of legal redress''.

Several Congress office-bearers attacked the Modi government over the issue with Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala asking whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government support the release of terrorists and will they get the court verdict reviewed.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran, serving life sentence in the case. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Supreme Court's decision ordering the release of six of the convicts has shocked the nation's conscience and has invited serious concern and criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.

Asked about the statements of forgiveness by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in the past, Singhvi said the party's stance has been the same despite the statements of the Gandhi family as it considers this an ''institutional matter''.

''It is a matter for example where my views are same as that of the central government. So this is not politics. Certainly Mrs Sonia Gandhi above all is entitled to her personal views but with greatest respect the party does not agree with that view, has never agreed with that view and has made its view consistently clear and we stand by that view because according to us the sovereignty, integrity and identity of the nation is involved in a prime minister's assassination, sitting or former,'' he said.

''Continuity is involved and that is why the central government never agreed with the state government in this regard, previous central governments and this central government,'' he added.

Asked whether the party also disagreed with its ally DMK, which rules Tamil Nadu, Singhvi said if the party is disagreeing with its own former chief Sonia Gandhi, will it agree with an ally.

''We intend to take all remedies available to us, be it review or any other form of legal redress, because we believe we owe it to the people of this country, to the Supreme Court and to the legacy which it has built,'' he said.

Earlier, in a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of the former prime minister is ''totally unacceptable and completely erroneous''.

''The Congress party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue,'' he said.

In his presser, Singhvi said the Supreme Court order sends a message to the world that India extends to these killers such benefits forgetting the nature of their crime.

Singhvi said that the verdict gives rise to various questions.

''How will the apex court in the future deal with similar claims by several other similarly placed or even seriously placed accused.... The Supreme Court cannot be selective when applying such standards,'' the Rajya Sabha MP said.

If the petitioners before the court were seeking relief, and the respondent state was supporting such release, it was incumbent upon the court to call for and to take into account the views of the central government, he opined.

''In this case, though the central government was called upon, sufficient weight was not given by the court to the central government's clear disagreement with the stand of the state government,'' he said.

The somewhat strange and possibly unintended effect of this order as a precedent would be that any recommendation by any state government would become final and binding and would be taken as virtually dispositive by the Supreme Court, he pointed out.

''This is also underlined by the fact, that the court was forced to exercise powers under Article 142 of the Constitution which is unique and indicative of the absence of any specific powers to do a thing, to order this release,'' Singhvi said.

The Congress believes that this is a wholly inapposite invocation of the drastic, ad-hoc and unique power of the apex court in a case involving convicted assassins of a former head of the Indian Government, striking at the very root of Indian sovereignty, he said.

Surjewala attacked the central government and raised questions about the ''doubtful role'' played by it in the matter.

''Does PM Modi & govt support the release of terrorists, who assassinated India's PM? Isn't this because Modi Govt utterly failed to present its case to SC? Is Modi Govt suffering from petty political partisanship on terrorism? Will PM Modi get the court verdict reviewed?'' Surjewala said in a tweet.

Nalini, Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar were sentenced to life terms in the case.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)