Reacting to the Supreme Court's verdict to give life sentences to the three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday said the central and state governments should release them immediately.
"I am happy with the Supreme Court's verdict on commuting the death penalty of Rajiv Gandhi's killers to life sentence, but the Centre and the state government should release the three convicts in his assassination case," said Karunanidhi.
Union New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said the apex court's verdict was unjustified, as when Afzal Guru was hanged, there were no such considerations.
"I think what they have done in India is following the convention of the civilized world, but Afzal Guru was hanged without any even telling us, and without providing any information. In that case, this is completely unjustified," said Abdullah.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of three men convicted of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to life in prison.
The convicts, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, had petitioned against their death sentence, arguing that there had been an exceptional delay in a decision on their mercy plea.
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A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam delivered the judgement on the mercy plea.
The Centre had earlier opposed the plea by arguing that the convicts did not go through torture, agony and dehumanising experience during pendency of the mercy pleas.
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber at an election rally in Sriperumbedur on May 21, 1991. Fourteen other people also lost their lives in that blast.
In 1999, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for being part of the group that conspired to kill Gandhi.
Their mercy petition was sent to the President of India, the last stage in the process of appeals, in 2000 and was rejected 11 years later. Their hanging was stayed in 2011 on the orders of the Madras High Court.