New Delhi, Nov 11, 2022: On Friday, Congress slammed the Supreme Court’s decision to free Nalini Sriharan and 5 other convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, saying it even “disagreed with Sonia Gandhi”. The party further expressed that they will seek legal remedies.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, by a female suicide bomber of the LTTE at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
Seven convicts had been sentenced to death for their role in the killing. In 2000, Nalini Sriharan’s sentence was reduced to a life term following an intervention by Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and former Congress president. In 2008, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the daughter of Rajiv Gandhi, had met with Nalini in Vellore jail.
The sentence of six more convicts was also commuted in 2014. In the same year, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha had begun moves to free them.
Sonia Gandhi had urged the apex court to show clemency to Nalini, who was pregnant at the time she was arrested.
“The party does not agree with Sonia Gandhi’s view, has never agreed with that view, and has made this view clear for years,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
“We are consistent about our stand. This is an institutional matter. The sovereignty, integrity and the identity of a nation is involved in the assassination of a former Prime Minister,” the Congress leader further added.
