TN told not to proceed with release of Rajiv killers: PM

The government has moved a review petition in the SC against the decision to release Rajiv's assassins

Holding that assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was an attack on India's soul, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the release of his killers would be "contrary to all principles of justice" and the Tamil Nadu government has been told not to proceed with it as it is "not legally tenable".

In a statement here, he said that no government or party should be soft in the fight against terrorism, an apparent reference to the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu which has decided to release all the seven convicts in the assassination case after the Supreme Court commuted death sentence of three of them to life imprisonment.

"The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was an attack on the soul of India," Singh said in the statement issued soon after the government moved a review petition in the Supreme Court on the "fundamental issues of law".

"The release of the killers of a former Prime Minister of India and our great leader, as well as several other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice," the Prime Minister asserted.

He said the Centre has "informed the Tamil Nadu government that their proposed course of action to release the killers of Rajiv Gandhi is not legally tenable and should not be proceeded with.