For Jayalalithaa’s birthday, Sathyaraj has a weird request

Remember AG Perarivalan, who is an accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case? In case you are not aware of who he is - Perarivalan has been in the prison for the last 25 years as he was charged with providing a 9-volt battery for the explosive device to the conspirator Sivarasan for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Perarivalan was arrested on June 11, 1991, at Periyar Thidal in Chennai by a team of CBI officers.  

Now, Tamil actor Sathyaraj has requested the government to release Perarivalan and six others, who are also serving sentences in the same case, on the eve of the 69th birth anniversary of the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa.

Perarivalan’s death sentence was changed to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court on February 18, 2014. But on February 19, 2014, the then CM of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa had announced that they are going to release Perarivalan and the remaining convicts in accordance with the rights granted under the Code of Criminal Conduct.

"The cabinet has taken a decision to release the three convicts, Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan, along with those four, Nalini, Robert Pyas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran who are undergoing life sentence. The decision will be conveyed to the Centre for appropriate action. If we don't get their response in three days, we will release all convicts in accordance with the rights granted under the Code of Criminal Procedure," Jayalalithaa had stated in 2014 before the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the cabinet.

But Perarivalan and his inmates were not released as the case is still technically open as it is being investigated by Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency under the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). It remains to be seen whether Perarivalan will ever be released.

• Sathyaraj
• Jayalalithaa
• AG Perarivalan