The Centre will examine the Tamil Nadu government's move to set free all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case before taking any view, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today.
His junior minister RPN Singh termed the state government's decision as "wrong and extremely unfortunate".
"Since morning I have been enquiring my officials whether any letter has come (from the Tamil Nadu government). But so far no letter has come. Once the letter comes, we will examine and take appropriate view," Shinde told reporters here when asked for his comments on the Jayalalithaa government's decision.
Under Section 435 CrPC, the state government has to seek the Centre's nod for release of the convicts.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister said if there was no response from the Centre within three days, her government would invoke powers vested with it under Section 432 CrPC and release all the seven convicts.
"The Tamil Nadu government's decision is wrong and extremely unfortunate. It is a very, very sad development," Singh told PTI without giving any indication what would be the Home Ministry's stand on the state government's move.
Earlier in the day, the Tamil Nadu government decided to set free within three days all the seven convicts after the Supreme Court commuted the death penalty of three assassins of Gandhi.
Besides Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, who earned a major reprieve from Supreme Court yesterday which spared them from gallows, Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran would walk out from prison.
Jayalalithaa, who took the decision at an emergency Cabinet meeting convened this morning over the issue, made a suo motu announcement in the state assembly.
