Raghav_12 Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/tamil-nadu-to-release-all-convicts-in-rajiv-gandhi-assassination-case/article1-1185593.aspx A day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of three assassins of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment, the Tamil Nadu government decided to release all convicts - including AG Perarivalan and Nalini - in the case, reports said on Wednesday. A combo picture of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. (Agencies photo) According to PTI, the decision was taken at an emergent cabinet meeting chaired by Jayalalithaa and announced in the state assembly. The apex court had rejected Centre's contention that delay in deciding mercy plea of convicts V Sriharan alias Murugan, AG Perarivlan alias Arivu and T Suthendraraja alias Santhan did not result in agony. The SC had cited the 11-year delay on the part of the Centre in deciding their mercy plea. Read: Will India abolish death penalty? The three assassins have sought the commutation of their death sentence to life imprisonment on account of the inordinate delay of nearly 11 years in deciding their mercy petitions. The verdict on their plea was reserved on Feb 4. The Central government had opposed the plea saying that apex court's Jan 21 verdict, holding inordinate, unreasonable and unexplained delay in deciding the mercy petitions by president was a ground for seeking commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment was not applicable in their case. Attorney General GE Vahanvati had told the court that all through these 11 years, the three assassins were living a full life by holding music shows, art exhibitions and other recreational activities in the jail. The government had said that during 11 years of their incarceration when their mercy petition was pending with the president, the three assassins suffered no agony, torture or dehumanising situation. Read: Rajiv case convicts Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan rejoice at SC ruling Senior counsel Yug Chaudhary who had appeared for the three assassins had argued that delay, per se, was torture. Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991. His assassins were convicted by a TADA court in January 1998 and were awarded death sentence, which was confirmed by the apex court May 11, 1999. In August 2012, their mercy petitions were rejected but as the date of their execution was fixed, the Madras high court intervened and the execution of the death sentenced was stayed. Subsequently on a plea by MDMK leader Vaiko, the matter before the Madras high court was transferred to the Supreme Court. This news doesn't sound good. I am not seeing any justification for decision to release them in this report or in the reports of such demands by DMK and MDMK. Though I agree with Supreme court's decision of commuting death sentence but releasing them from prison is altogether different thing. Probable legal justification is that they have already completed the duration for which a life sentence to be served after being in prison for around 20 years.
Detonator Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 If they were executed as soon as they got convicted, there won't be such lot of drama. Both the delay in assasination and releasing them is carried out for political gain. Perarivalan has already gained a lot of sympathy in Tamil media, becoz he just gave a 9-volt battery unknowingly.
Raghav_12 Posted February 19, 2014 Author Posted February 19, 2014 http://www.firstpost.com/india/rajiv-killers-case-sc-verdict-will-only-worsen-sense-of-injustice-1397869.html SC has goofed: Now, TN will make heroes of Rajiv’s killers If the Supreme Court decided to commute the death sentences of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case - Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan - because the 11-year delay in carrying out their execution was "inordinate and unreasonable", the Tamil Nadu government reacted with extreme alacrity to announce their release. It will release not only the three on death row, but four others too - Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran. Seven political assassins and/or their accomplices are now going to be on the loose and will be treated as heroes by the state. This is extremely disturbing for reasons that have nothing to do with the court's reasoning. In fact, the verdict and its aftermath show exactly how the verdict will become a political moral hazard for the country. Supreme Court of India Supreme Court of India On the face of it, Tuesday’s verdict looks unexceptionable. The court said that "exorbitant delays in the disposal of the mercy petition renders the process of execution of death sentence arbitrary, whimsical and capricious, and therefore, inexecutable." Now, the speed with which the Tamil Nadu government has acted without even studying the verdict properly shows that its action is "arbitrary, whimsical and capricious" - exactly what the court warned against. It is clear that the execution delay was entirely attributable to political reasons as no central government – NDA or UPA - wanted to offend the alleged sentiments of the people in Tamil Nadu. It is highly unlikely that too many people would have had any real sympathies for the people who killed a former Prime Minister, but politicians have never displayed any spine when it comes to standing up to unverifiable popular “sentimentsâ€. The phrase "arbitrary, whimsical and capricious" applies definitely to Indian politics - and, I dare say, to the judiciary itself occasionally, as the Supreme Court’s recent judgment on the anti-gay, anti-human rights section 377 shows. One only has to read Arun Shourie's book Courts and their Judgments to back this statement (You can download the ebook here, but please check on copyright issues). The Supreme Court's decision in the Rajiv killers' case is questionable because it has now sanctified the “arbitrary, whimsical and capricious†behaviours of our political class. Consider the longer-term implications of its verdict. One, in future politicians will lead agitations to ensure that a death penalty is never executed in time so that ultimately the plea of inordinate delay can be used to subvert the verdict. Two, in future all executions will be based largely on “arbitrary, whimsical and capricious†political decisions. As the executions of Ajmal Kasab in November 2012 (to show up Narendra Modi before the Gujarat elections) and Afzal Guru in February 2013 (to take the wind out of the BJP’s sails) showed, executions will be carried out largely for political reasons and when they are convenient to the politicians in power. How can we now escape the charge that we executed two inconvenient Muslims with low political support when one Sikh (Balwant Singh Rajoana, who killed Punjab CM Beant Singh) and three Tamil killers are spared the gallows purely for political reasons? Will executions in future be decided on the basis of how many votes an execution will cost or bring to a political party? Three, the ostensible reason for commuting the death sentence when the wait is inordinate is humanitarian. It is presumed that the death row convict would have spent a lot of time worrying about whether or not he is going to die. This reasoning is questionable. Even though there is a certain amount of mental cruelty involved, compared to the crimes for which they may have been convicted – especially political crimes for which they may have planned and plotted in cold blood – a long wait on death row is no mental cruelty at all. In fact, this humanitarian reasoning ignores the mental cruelty inflicted on the family and friends of the victims of these killers by this long wait. Keeping the killers endlessly on death row may be bad, but what about the mental agonies of the relatives of the people who got killed? At best, only unthinking crimes of passion can probably qualify for the mental cruelty argument to save people from execution due to delays. Four, it is specious to argue that death penalty is itself barbaric when we use it only for the “rarest of rare†crimes. But even if we assume that society should not take a life on moral grounds, then the case for reducing the life sentence to anything less than the entire life of the convict weakens. But consider what is happening in Tamil Nadu right now. Even before the ink on the Supreme Court verdict dries, politicians had begun demanding that the killers be set free. Now J Jayalalithaa's government has obliged on the basis of an “arbitrary, whimsical and capricious†political judgment before an election. Soon they will be out and we will have convicted killers being treated like heroes and writing books to make money out of it. One should ask what the families of the 17 people killed along with Rajiv Gandhi will think about this. Will they think there is justice done? Five, as a corollary, if we are going to abolish the death penalty (we have been heading there by stealth for a while), we should simultaneously ensure that a life sentence is really a life sentence. And powers of pardon should not rest with the executive, but with the victims of those killers. Any other decision would render the Supreme Court verdict as little more than “arbitrary, whimsical and capricious†in itself.
beetle Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 The SC should step in and make sure life sentence translate to sentence for life. This is exactly why we need capital punishment...because we have bloody effing politicians to always take advantage of loop holes.
zubinpepsi Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 If they were executed as soon as they got convicted' date=' there won't be such lot of drama. Both the delay in assasination and releasing them is carried out for political gain. Perarivalan has already gained a lot of sympathy in Tamil media, [b']becoz he just gave a 9-volt battery unknowingly. this case is a sham.. how can anyone be sentenced to life (let alone death) for this..
Detonator Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 this case is a sham.. how can anyone be sentenced to life (let alone death) for this.. well, Perarivalan is the only convict who seems to be innocent.
BeautifulGame Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 “It will be miscarriage of justice if extreme penalty is carried out” A documentary released by the People’s Movement Against Death Penalty (PMADP) here on Saturday claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had failed to record verbatim the confessional statement of A.G. Perarivalan alias Arivu, the convict facing death penalty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The shocking but delayed revelation was based on the interview of a former Superintendent of Police of the CBI who admitted that he failed to record verbatim the confessional statement of Perarivalan. V. Thiagarajan IPS (retired) who was the then CBI SP of the Kerala Branch said he was assigned the task of recording the statement of accused persons in 1991. “Arivu told me that he did not know why they asked him to buy that [the battery]. But I did not record that in the confessional statement. Then the investigation was in progress, so that particular statement I did not record. Strictly speaking, law expects you to record a statement verbatim… we don’t do that in practice,” he said. He said Sivarasan, one of the prime suspects, had sent a message to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam headquarters that the plot to kill Gandhi was not shared with anybody. “It excludes the prior knowledge of everybody else, except Nalini, that Gandhi was going to be assassinated… this is a very solid, uncontested and unchallengeable evidence.” There was subsequent internal evidence to clearly say that Arivu had no prior knowledge that Gandhi was going to be killed. “If he did not know that there was going to be a killing, how can you make him party to the killing. It is illogical, it is against the evidence on record. Therefore, you look at it from any angle it will be miscarriage of justice if the extreme penalty is carried out,” he said. Mr. Thiagarajan went on to explain that though he felt this before, he could not do anything at that stage. With regard to Arivu in particular, he always felt “a little uneasy” that the confessional statement was not appreciated the way it should have been. “Superficially they took it and jumped to the conclusion… they took a strong view that Arivu knew of the killing and he bought the battery. That is not the truth. We cannot speculate, it is very dangerous to speculate.” Former Supreme Court Judge Justice K.T. Thomas who delivered judgement in the case has also opposed capital punishment. He said if the capital punishment is implemented, it would mean two punishments for one offence, which India cannot afford. Former Supreme Court Judge V.R. Krishna Iyer who heads the PMADP made an appeal to the Government of India against executing any person in the name of Rajiv Gandhi. “Whenever there is a suspicion, please don’t execute,” he said. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/former-cbi-official-says-he-did-not-record-perarivalans-confession-verbatim/article5384370.ece
Detonator Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 “It will be miscarriage of justice if extreme penalty is carried out†http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/former-cbi-official-says-he-did-not-record-perarivalans-confession-verbatim/article5384370.ece How abusrd it can get. Delayed for 20 yrs and finally that IPS got some heart and tells the truth after that poor guy spent half of his life time in jail.
moniker Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 ^ How did the court convict him if there was no evidence?
yoda Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 How about freeing the one guy and hanging the rest?
Desi Cartman Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 Let's see how BJP reacts to this as they were quite aggressive about hanging afzal and now they will have to be careful in what they say as they will need Amma's support.
Blue Star Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 Let's see how BJP reacts to this as they were quite aggressive about hanging afzal and now they will have to be careful in what they say as they will need Amma's support. Afzal guru's crime can't be compared with these people. These guys didn't target the whole parliament, they were after only a single person Rajiv Gandhi .
moniker Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 So according to our laws commutation of sentence = pardon? Why does the state government has the authority to release prisoners in the first place? Fine if it is exchange of hostages, but that's not the case here.
randomGuy Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 So according to our laws commutation of sentence = pardon? Why does the state government has the authority to release prisoners in the first place? Fine if it is exchange of hostages' date=' but that's not the case here.[/quote'] commutation of death sentence = converting it into life sentence. And then
BeautifulGame Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 Afzal guru's crime can't be compared with these people. These guys didn't target the whole parliament' date=' they were after only a single person Rajiv Gandhi .[/quote'] What a load of BS. Both committed committed terrorist acts which resulted in lives of innocent people and security personal.
Blue Star Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 What a load of BS. Both committed committed terrorist acts which resulted in lives of innocent people and security personal. It looks like a BS if you have a puny brain and don't understand what I am saying. These guys didn't target the entire parliament or the entire nation. Their target was a single person called Rajiv Gandhi and they are not terrorists. You can argue Rajiv Gandhi was a prime minister but he was a single person. Being prime minister doesn't make him superior to others. Even supreme court has agreed to this point. Who the Feck are you to disagree. :haha:
gattaca Posted February 19, 2014 Posted February 19, 2014 It looks like a BS if you have a puny brain and don't understand what I am saying. These guys didn't target the entire parliament or the entire nation. Their target was a single person called Rajiv Gandhi and they are not terrorists. You can argue Rajiv Gandhi was a prime minister but he was a single person. Being prime minister doesn't make him superior to others. Even supreme court has agreed to this point. Who the Feck are you to disagree. :haha: They killed 15 people. Let us know if this is not a crime. Isn't LTTE a terrorist organization ?
CSK Fan Posted February 20, 2014 Posted February 20, 2014 It looks like a BS if you have a puny brain and don't understand what I am saying. These guys didn't target the entire parliament or the entire nation. Their target was a single person called Rajiv Gandhi and they are not terrorists. You can argue Rajiv Gandhi was a prime minister but he was a single person. Being prime minister doesn't make him superior to others. Even supreme court has agreed to this point. Who the Feck are you to disagree. :haha: I can post much more really gruesome photos and you can see what you are defending Yes, they are not terrorist all right as they speak your language I guess
Blue Star Posted February 20, 2014 Posted February 20, 2014 I can post much more really gruesome photos and you can see what you are defending Yes, they are not terrorist all right as they speak your language I guess No, I'm not a Tamil, but I am very interested and supporter of Sri Lankan Tamils. Yes, many were killed with Rajiv Gandhi but they were not the targets of the LTTE. They wanted to assassinate rajiv Gandhi just like Indira Gandhi's body guard assassinated her. You don't call the body gaurds terrorists, do you? My post was about comparing these people with Afzal guru. He helped the terrorists to attack the parliament and kill as many as possible. It was a fidayeen attack and it didn't target a single person like LTTE did.
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