Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Supreme Court orders release of AG Perarivalan
A TADA court condemned AG Perarivalan to death in 1998, and the Supreme Court affirmed the sentence a year later. Years later, in 2014, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and the highest court gave him bail in March of this year.
FollowThe Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that AG Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who has been imprisoned for 31 years, will be freed. Peravilan was 19 years old at the time of the assassination and was suspected of purchasing two 9-volt batteries for Sivarasan, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member who masterminded Rajiv Gandhi's death.
The batteries were used in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. A TADA court condemned AG Perarivalan to death in 1998, and the Supreme Court affirmed the sentence a year later. Years later, in 2014, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment, and the highest court gave him bail in March of this year.
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The judgement clears the door for the release of the other six inmates in the case, including Nalini Sriharan and her Sri Lankan spouse Murugan. In March of this year, the Supreme Court granted him bail on the basis that the criminal had already served 31 years in prison.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed on May 21, 1991, during a political rally in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur by a female suicide bomber known as Dhanu. In the case, seven persons were convicted. Despite the fact that they were all condemned to death, the Supreme Court modified their sentences to life terms in 2014, citing the President's excessive delay in deciding on their mercy appeals. One of them, Nalini Sriharan, got her prison sentence commuted to life in 2000 after Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's widow, intervened because the lady had given birth while imprisoned.
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Perarivalan and others petitioned the courts after being refused remission like other criminals, even after serving more than 16 years. They've now been incarcerated for three decades.
Perarivalan, who has been in solitary confinement for many years, has a very good prison record. During his lengthy sentence, he had obtained a number of academic credentials. He has also written a book.
