New Delhi: If Godse’s brother could be released in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case, then why  should the doors be closed for assassins of Rajiv Gandhi, the Tamil Nadu government asked the Supreme Court.
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“Not far from this court long time ago an old man was engaged in the freedom struggle. Somebody still decided to kill the man and that man was Mahatma Gandhi. There is no greater leader than the father of the nation – Mahatma Gandhi. A conspirator in the case, Gopal Vinayak Godse, was let off after 16 years. Nobody questioned that, why not these people (seven convicts in Rajiv assassination case),” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government told a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu.
Godse was released in October 1964 in the case but was rearrested in another case to be out of jail finally in 1965.
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The Lincoln parallels
Dwivedi also cited the assassination of former US President Abraham Lincoln in which out of eight convicts, four were hanged, one died in jail while three others were pardoned. “It is sad that these leaders were assassinated,” he said. “I am saying keep the doors open. Why should we close the doors and in spite of a long passage of time, keep these convicts in jail?,” Dwivedi submitted before the bench also comprising Justices F M I Kalifulla, Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Abhay Manohar Sapre and U U Lalit.
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Clearing the air
Dwivedi made it clear that he is not defending the action of the convicts. He said in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case the main conspirator — Velupillai  Prabhakaran — was never brought to justice in an Indian court. However, his entire family, including his minor son, was wiped out, he recalled.
“There is an age-old link between the Jaffna Tamils and Indian Tamils,” he submitted to support his argument in favour of the seven life convicts being allowed to be released from the prison.
Among the seven convicts, V Sriharan alias Murugan, Santhan, Robert Pious and Jaya Kumar are Sri Lankan nationals, while female convict Nalini, Ravichandran and Arivu are Indians.
(With inputs from PTI)