Rajiv Gandhi's killers can't be released: Centre Tells Supreme Court
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The Supreme Court was on Friday informed by the Centre that the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case cannot be released, holding that setting them free will set a "dangerous precedent".
The Tamil Nadu government's proposal to release the convicts is not acceptable to the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, told a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi. "Releasing the killers of a former Prime Minister will set a very dangerous precedent.
"The case has been decided by various forum of judiciary and executive and the prisoners do not deserve to be set free," said the Centre in its report.
Placing before the bench the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs, taken on April 18, Anand said the Centre has taken a decision not to release the seven convicts on the state government's proposal.
It said that the Central Bureau of Investigation has opposed the Tamil Nadu government's proposal to release the convicts in the "interest of justice".
"The case has been reviewed, scrutinised by various forums of judiciary and executive and both the highest judicial and executive forum have evaluated the case and decided the matter.
"Releasing the four foreign nationals who had committed the gruesome murder of the former Prime Minister of this country along with 15 others, most of who were police officers, in connivance with three Indian nationals will set a dangerous precedent and lead to international ramifications by other such criminals in the future," the Centre's document stated.
"The Centre, in pursuance of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) does not concur to the proposal of Tamil Nadu government for grant of further remission of sentence to the seven convicts," said the union government.
The Centre filed the report in compliance of the top court order directing it to take a call on the Tamil Nadu government's proposal within three months.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
