What can common man expect if PM's killers go free: Rahul

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said he wondered how a common man can hope for justice, if the conspirators behind a prime minister's assassination are set free.

Gandhi was reacting to a query on the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release within three days three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In his parliamentary constituency Amethi on a one-day visit, an emotional Gandhi told a gathering that even a prime minister does not get justice in this country.

"The prime minister gave up his life... (but the) prime minister does not get justice," he said.

The Congress leader told residents and party supporters that with regards to the fate of the three convicts, he neither felt angry nor sad.

"By being sad or angry, my father, who was also very close to you all, will not come back," he said.

He, however, said that he was left thinking that if such a thing can happen to the killers of a former prime minister, how can a common man hope for any justice.

Gandhi also said that personally he was against capital punishment, but this issue concerned the country.

"My father will not come back but it is a national matter, not one of my family or my father.

"If someone kills the prime minister and he is released, how will the common man get justice?

"This is a question that needs to be looked into. There is a need to change Hindustan," he said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Wednesday announced that six men and a woman - both Indians and Sri Lankans - convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case are to be freed.

All seven have been in prison since 1991, the year a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up killing Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally near Chennai.