Team News Riveting
Chennai, March 9
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to A G Perarivalan, one of the seven persons convicted in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case convict. He has been in jail for the last 32 years.
A Bench of justice L Nageswara Rao granted the bail stating that he had undergone imprisonment for 32 years. The court further added that there was sufficient material produced by the petitioner regarding his conduct, his ill health. “Taking into account the fact that he has spent more than 30 years in prison, we are of the view that he should be released on bail,” the court said.
The bail was granted despite severe opposition from the Assistant Solicitor General KM Nataraj.
The court also stated that the bail will be subject to conditions by the trial court and he shall report to the CBI officer on the first of every month. Perarivalan has been asked to report to the local police station for the time being. He is on parole currently, and has been on parole three times earlier.
Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally. Fourteen others, including Dhanu herself, were also killed. Gandhi’s assassination was probably the first case in the country of suicide bombing that had claimed the life of a high-profile leader.
Perarivalan was 19 years old when he was arrested for his involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. He was charged with supplying the two nine-volt batteries that were eventually used in the belt bomb that killed the former Prime Minister.
The trial court had sentenced 26 persons to death in the case. In May 1999, the Supreme Court acquitted 19 persons and convicted only seven. Of the seven, Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were awarded death sentences while the other three were sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of the four convicts to life, including for Perarivalan, citing delays in deciding on their mercy pleas.
