Chennai : Cutting across party lines, politicians in Tamil Nadu welcomed the Supreme Court decision asking Tamil Nadu governor to decide on mercy petition of AG Perarivalan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case of 1991.

DMK president MK Stalin hailed the SC order and urged Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswami to call cabinet meeting and resolve to free the convicts who have served long sentences in jail.

In his Facebook post, Stalin said his father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi was always seekin ghte release of the convicts. Former union minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss hoped the central government would not go in appeal against the SC decision.

Ramadoss asked the TN government to immediately implement the SC order.

Ramadoss said Chief Minister Palaniswami should call a cabinet meeting and pass a resolution to release all the convicts in the Gandhi assassination case and send it to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

The President of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi M.H.Jawahirullah also urged Palaniswami to pass a resolution in the cabinet meeting recommending release of the convicts.

The seven convicts are V.Sriharan alais Murugan, T.Suthendraraja alais Santhan, Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini Sriharan, wife of Sriharan alias Murugan.

These seven have been in jail since 1991, after they were picked up for the suicide bomber attack that killed Rajiv Gandhi and several police personnel on duty at Sriperumbudur.