Compromise with terrorist act: Congress on Modi govt's silence on release of Rajiv case convicts

In 1991, during campaigning for the Congress in Sriperumbudur, a woman approached Rajiv Gandhi, touched his feet and blew a belt of RDX. She, Rajiv and few other people surrounding them were killed in the explosion. (Image: Reuters)

The Congress on Saturday alleged that the Modi government's "silence" on the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of the six remaining convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case is a "compromise with the terrorist act".

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the premature release of six convicts, including Nalini Sriharan and R P Ravichandran, serving life sentence in the case. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is equally applicable in their matter.

Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said there shouldn't be any sympathy towards terrorists.

The Modi government's "reprehensible silence" on the release of the culprits of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination is a "compromise with the terrorist act", Venugopal said.

And those who applaud the release of these terrorists are, indeed, indirectly emboldening them, he added.

His remarks came a day after Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK, which is a Congress ally, and main opposition AIADMK welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.

The Congress on Friday had termed "totally unacceptable and completely erroneous" the Supreme Court order directing the premature release of the six remaining convicts serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and said the apex court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India.

The Congress also said it disagreed with its former chief Sonia Gandhi, whose appeal helped in the commutation of death sentence of convict Nalini Sriharan, asserting that she was entitled to her personal views but the party's stand had been consistent on this over the years.