The Madras High Court on Friday wanted to know whether the State government was not aware of the “international ramifications” the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had and the reported “overseas contacts of the convicts in the case with banned outfits” before taking a decision to release all seven of them.
Justice N. Kirubakaran raised the question during the hearing of a case seeking permission for two of the convicts, S. Nalini and her husband Murugan alias V. Sriharan, to talk over phone to the latter’s mother Somani Ammal in Sri Lanka and sister Raji in London. M. Radhakrishnan, counsel for the convicts, said the Inspector General of Prisons cited international ramifications of the offence and the alleged overseas contacts of the convicts with banned outfits to deny permission to talk to relatives on phone.
He pointed out to State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan that the State Cabinet on September 9, 2018, recommended the release of all seven convicts. Similarly, the Assembly had passed resolutions to release them.
“When you took those decisions, did you not consider international ramifications? It is really shocking,” the judge said.
Agreeing that the convicts had certainly committed a heinous offence by assassinating a former Prime Minister of the country, the judge said even condemned prisoners were given the right to attend the funeral rites of their parents. He granted time till June 12 for the SPP to find out whether the government would allow them to make phone calls purely on humanitarian grounds.