Rajiv killing an attack on India’s soul: PM

New Delhi, Feb 20: Describing the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as an “attack on the soul of India”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the government is moving a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Attacking the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to free six men and a woman arrested for the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation TIgers of Tamil Eelam, Singh said the “proposed course of action to release the killers is not legally tenable and should not be proceeded with”.

“The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was an attack on the soul of India. Release of the killers of a former PM of India, our great leader, and other innocent Indians, would be contrary to all principles of justice. No government or party should be soft in our fight against terrorism,” Manmohan Singh said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The government is moving a review petition in the SC on fundamental issues of law arising from the assassination of the Rajiv Gandhi,” he added.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Wednesday announced that seven people convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case are to be freed.