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Rajiv Gandhi Killers

SC blocks their release

Our Correspondent, New Delhi
India's Supreme Court yesterday blocked the release of three killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denounced the move to free them.
The killers were among seven LTTE extremists who
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were set to be freed from a prison by this weekend after chief minister of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday ordered their release, sparking political uproar.
The May, 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a woman suicide bomber near Chennai was an "attack on the nation's soul" and releasing his assassins would be contrary to all principles of justice, Manmohan said.
"No government or party should be soft in our fight against terrorism," he said in a statement yesterday morning.
After agreeing to an urgent hearing on a petition, a Supreme Court (SC) bench ordered the Tamil Nadu government to maintain "status quo" for three of the seven until it had a chance to examine the issue thoroughly.
The Manmohan Singh-led government moved the petition against the
freeing of the killers.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, said although Tamil Nadu authorities had the right to release the prisoners, it was concerned about “procedural lapses".
The apex court said the Congress-led federal government could file a fresh petition for the remaining four who are serving life sentences.
In a surprise move. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had ordered the release of all seven convicts a day after the SC commuted the death sentence handed down on three convicted over their role in the assassination in her state.
Rajiv had been India's youngest-ever leader after his mother, prime minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated on October 31, 1984. He ruled until losing an election five years later.
Rajiv's son Rahul, who is the Congress
vice president and the party's frontman for the looming general elections, voiced his sadness on Wednesday over Jayalalithaa's decision.
"If some person kills the PM and is released then how will a common man... get justice?" said Rahul.
He was only 20 at the time of the suicide bomb attack which killed 16 other people.
" In this country even the PM does not get justice. This is my heart's voice," Rahul was quoted as saying by local media.
Several news analysts yesterday said Jayalalithaa's decision to release the killers was motivated by a desire to woo Tamil voters for her regional party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazghagam, at the parliamentary elections due by the end of May.
In the past, she had been a vocal critic ofLITE.