The
Hindu: Chennai: Saturday, June 01, 2019.
In
the interest of justice and fairness, similar cases should be treated
similarly, says ex-CBI official
The
demand for the release of the seven life convicts in former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case took a new turn on Friday, with former CBI
Director D.R. Kaarthikeyan saying there was a "point for
consideration" in the wake of the remission of actor Sanjay Dutt’s
sentence.
He
was replying to a question on a plea made by Perarivalan, one of the life
convicts in the case, that the grounds and provisions of law invoked to grant
premature release to Mr. Dutt should be extended to him as well.
"I
don’t know the full facts of the Sanjay Dutt case. However, in view of the
reply given by jail authorities, there is a case for consideration in the
interest of justice and fairness that similar cases should be treated
similarly,” Mr. Kaarthikeyan, who led the Special Investigation Team that probed
the assassination of the former Prime Minister, told The Hindu.
Mr.
Kaarthikeyanhad earlier advocated the commutation of the death sentences
awarded to the convicts and called for a special session of Parliament to
debate and decide whether the country should abolish the death penalty.
Parrying
questions on his view on the premature release of the seven convicts, he said
he had done his duty as the SIT chief in investigating the assassination of the
former PM. “Their premature release is a matter under the consideration of the
Supreme Court and the Central and State governments...I have nothing to say on
that," he added.
To
a query raised by Perarivalan under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the
Yerwada Central Prison authorities in Pune went on record, saying that the
Central government was not consulted on granting remission of jail sentence to
Mr. Dutt, convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts case. The actor was sentenced
to five-year imprisonment under the Arms Act, a central legislation, and granted
remission on the ground of “good conduct”.
This
revelation assumes significance in the backdrop of the ruling of a five-member
Constitution Bench in Sriharan alias Murugan & others vs the Union of India
that the Centre was the appropriate authority to reduce sentences in cases of
offences under the Arms Act. Both Mr. Dutt and Perarivalan were convicted under
central acts.
Pointing
out that the release of Mr. Dutt was neither facilitated by constitutional
provisions nor by those of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Perarivalan’s
advocates and rights activists have demanded that the convicts in the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination case also be released along the same lines as Mr. Dutt.
.JPG)
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