Rajiv Gandhi case: Released Sri Lankan nationals to be deported

The four Sri Lankan nationals, convicted for their role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, but released by the Supreme Court recently, will be deported to their country of origin, according to Indian Union Home Ministry sources.

The ministry has issued instructions to the Tamil Nadu government for the deportation of the four persons, Murugan (alias Sriharan), Robert Payas, S Jayakumar and Santhan alias T Suthendraraja, soon after they were freed from the prisons. All four are in a special camp in Tiruchy.

“Some legal procedures will need to be completed before they are actually deported to Sri Lanka,” the sources said, adding that “while no time frame or specific date has been fixed for their deportation,” the process will be in accordance with the law.

The rules that detail the deportation of convicts discharged from prisons flow from the Supreme Court order of February 28, 2012. While the Sri Lankan government has been informed, through the Ministry of External Affairs, about the impending deportations, the four Sri Lankans were moved to the special camp. 

As some of the convicts reportedly wish to go to countries other than Sri Lanka, a senior State government official told TNIE: “The TN government may not have any objection (to the country to which the released person wishes to go). But it depends on how the visas from other countries work out.”