3 Rajiv Gandhi Case Convicts Leave India

Three men who had been convicted for their role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi left for Colombo Wednesday morning. Murugan, Robert Payas, and Jayakumar were among six freed in November 2022 by the Supreme Court, which had said they showed "satisfactory behaviour" while in jail and also noted the Tamil Nadu government had recommended their release.

All three men were escorted from a special camp in Tiruchirappalli - where they had been held after their release from jail - to Chennai International Airport by a team of police officers early this morning. The men, all Sri Lankan nationals, were recently granted passports by the island nation.

One of the six - Murugan - is married to Nalini, an Indian citizen who was among the six released in 2022 on the Supreme Court's orders. Nalini accompanied her husband to the airport; visuals showed her sitting with him for a few moments before he was taken into the terminal.

Three decades ago, an intervention by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, the late Prime Minister's widow, spared Nalini's life - she, and the others, had been sentenced to death - after it emerged she had been pregnant during the sentencing. Her daughter is now a doctor in the United Kingdom. The death sentences of the others was commuted by the top court, citing an inordinate delay by the President in disposing off their mercy pleas.