Zee Media Bureau/Kamna Arora
New Delhi: Underlining that no government or party should be soft in fight against terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the government is moving a review petition in the Supreme Court on “fundamental issues of law” arising from the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam has, meanwhile, directed the hearing at 12.45 pm after Solicitor General Mohan Prasaran mentioned the matter, saying that the seven convicts should not be released till the court decides on the petition seeking review of its verdict commuting the death sentence of the three key conspirators to life imprisonment.
In a press statement, Dr Singh said the government has informed the Tamil Nadu Government that its “proposed course of action to release the killers of Shri Rajiv Gandhi is not legally tenable and should not be proceeded with”.
Calling the assassination of Gandhi an “attack on the soul of India”, Dr Singh said the release of the killers of a former PM, as well as several other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice.
On Wednesday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi came out against the Tamil Nadu government`s move.
If someone "who kills a prime minister is released, how will the common man get justice?" an emotional Rahul Gandhi told a gathering in his parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, reports IANS.
"The Prime Minister gave up his life... (but the) Prime Minister does not get justice," he said.
The Congress condemned the Tamil Nadu government`s decision to free six men and a woman arrested for the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil Tiger woman suicide bomber.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday announced that seven people -- Indians and Sri Lankans -- convicted in the Gandhi assassination case are to be freed.
