India’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of six people, including a woman, who were convicted of the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, drawing sharp criticism from the main opposition Congress party. Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber while campaigning on behalf of the Congress Party in the southern Indian city of Sriperumbudur in May 1991. Seven people were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case.
The court said its decision was based on the good behavior of the prisoners and the release in May of A.G. Perarivalan, another person convicted in the case, who said he was 19 at the time of his arrest and had been incarcerated for more than 30 years. , with 29 of them in solitary confinement. Gandhi’s widow Sonia was until recently the president of India’s Congress Party, while their son Rahul and daughter Priyanka are also among its leaders.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to acquit the remaining killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and totally wrong,” the party said in a statement. “The Congress party clearly criticizes this and finds it completely unsustainable. It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in accordance with the spirit of India in this matter.
Gandhi’s killing was seen as an act of revenge after he sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987 to withdraw them after losing more than 1,200 men in battle and facing accusations of human rights abuses in the island nation. His mother Indira was assassinated in 1984 due to the army’s attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar to crush the Sikh militant movement.
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