New Delhi: The Supreme Court is expected to hear on Tuesday a case relating to the premature release of seven convicts currently serving life imprisonment terms for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. According to reports, the Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras high court last week that the case is likely to be listed before the apex court on December 7.
The petition for premature release was filed back in 2016 by 46-year-old AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts seeking the suspension of his life sentence in the case till the CBI-led Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) completes its probe on the aspect of a larger conspiracy behind the assassination of the former prime minister.
At the hearing of the case last year, the Supreme Court sought to know the current status of a recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu cabinet to the state’s governor in September 2018 to release all the convicts under powers granted by Article 161 of the Constitution.
Notably, the aforementioned article empowers a governor to pardon a convict in any criminal case.
