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Rajiv Gandhi's killers to be freed

Update : 19 Feb 2014, 07:51 AM

Authorities in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have decided to free seven people convicted of killing former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

NDTV reported that Tamil Nadu's council of ministers met on Wednesday morning and decided to free the seven, including one woman.

The announcement came a day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of three convicts, citing delays in deciding their mercy pleas.

All seven were members of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel group, reports BBC.

Gandhi's murder in May 1991 was seen as retaliation for his having sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.

Among the prisoners to be released are the three men pardoned by the Supreme Court - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan - who have been in jail for more than 20 years and were on death row since 1998.

Nalini Sriharan, an Indian Tamil woman, was also given the death penalty by the trial court in 1998, but the Supreme Court had commuted the capital punishment to life imprisonment for her.

Three other convicts - Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran - who are serving life sentences in jail for involvement in the assassination will also be among those freed, authorities said.

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