I got affected because I was ignorant of law. I want to be a lawyer now

A.G. PERARIVALAN is finally back home, after having spent nearly 31 years behind bars. One of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, he was initially sentenced to death; the Supreme Court later commuted it to life imprisonment. In March this year, he was granted bail and, on May 18, the Supreme Court ordered his early release.

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

Most of his time in prison was spent among books, educational and otherwise including Tamil and Russian literature. While in jail, Perarivalan also filed several petitions under the Right to Information Act, and review petitions in court. Following his long incarceration, he now wants to pursue a degree in law and work on prison reforms. But politics or social activism is of “no interest” to him, he tells THE WEEK. Excerpts:

Q/ You want to pursue a degree in law. Why?

A/ I will have to answer the question in depth. Ignorance can never be an excuse. The law doesn’t accept anyone’s ignorance (as innocence). And people like me get affected only when they are ignorant of law. That is how I understand it. If I had known the law and known that the eight-day custody (when he was first picked up) was an illegal custody, I would have got released then itself.

Next, on June 19, 1991, they (investigating agency) got an order in Chengalpattu for a 15-day remand. The then chief investigating officer, K. Raghothaman, got the order extended to 30 days from the same judge, opposing the 15-day remand order. It was equal to illegal detention. After 2000, lots of judgments in this regard have come out. Many things that are wrong as per the law I have faced during the 31 years of my prison life.