NEW DELHI: India’s top court ordered release of six people convicted over assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhi was 46 when he was killed by a woman suicide bomber at an election rally in southern state of Tamil Nadu in 1991. Assassination was carried out by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Sri Lankan armed separatist group.

India’s supremecourt said convicts were being released based on their “satisfactory conduct” in prison and that they had served over three decades of jail time. Six (three of whom had been condemned to death before their sentences were commuted in 2014) are last still in prison for assassination.

Earlier this year, court order release of another convict who had been initially sentenced to hang, AG Perarivalan, citing good conduct. Gandhi became India’s youngest prime minister after his mother and predecessor Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

Family’s Congress party dominated Indian politics for decades and Rajiv’s widow Sonia remains most powerful figure in organisation, while their son Rahul is seen as current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main political opponent. Rajiv Gandhi’s killing was largely seen as a response to his move to send Indian forces to Sri Lanka in 1987 to disarm Tamil rebels.

India later withdrew its troops after losing more than 1,000 of them in fights with rebels. Release of convicts has been subject of much debate in India and Congress condemned court decision as “totally unacceptable” and “completely erroneous”. “It is most unfortunate that Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with spirit of India on this issue,” party said, tweeting a statement by senior member Jairam Ramesh.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 12 2022

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