India’s top court has approved the release from prison of six men serving life sentences for their roles in the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Supreme Court of India cited their ‘satisfactory conduct’ in prison and the fact that they had spent over three decades in jail as factors in the decision. The decision has shocked many in India, as it means all seven people convicted of involvement in the assassination have now been released, including three people who were initially sentenced to death.
While Gandhi’s family was initially silent, several leaders of the Congress Party, now led by his widow and son, condemned the verdict. However, there has been legitimate criticism of the circumstances under which the assassination was investigated, including the use of questionable evidence and torture to force false confessions. The case of AG Perarivalan, the first convict freed, illustrates this best. Perarivalan was released in March after spending 31 years behind bars for ‘buying the battery’ used in the bombs. But Perarivalan proved that he kept several batteries on hand for use in the equipment he used to record and edit news bulletins and when the other suspect asked him for batteries, Perarivalan simply gave him two he already had on hand. Even though the government claimed he was doing this recording work for the Tamil Tigers, the group was not banned in India at the time, meaning Perarivalan was doing legal work for a legal entity.
There is also the fact that Rajiv Gandhi’s children say they have forgiven the convicted men. Whether this forgiveness was heartfelt or political, it removed much of the impetus to keep the now-elderly convicts behind bars. Still, coming on the heels of the bail grant to men involved in gang rape during the Gujarat riots, the case will cause consternation for those who see the Indian judiciary as being unfairly lenient towards certain majoritarian groups.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2022.
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