Rajiv Gandhi Killing - Perarivalan And Six Hopefuls

With A.G. Perarivalan having received bail, fellow convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case are nursing renewed hopes

- Lakshmi Subramanian

On March 9, Supreme Court granted bail to A.G. Perarivalan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Over the past several years, demands for the release of all seven convicts in the case have continued strongly, with the Tamil Nadu assembly and the state cabinet passing multiple resolutions seeking their release.

The bail granted to Perarivalan alias Arivu, 51, has put the spotlight back on the convicts—Nalini Sriharan, Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Ravichandran, Jayakumar and Robert Payas—who have been in prison for 32 years. It also marks a significant phase in Perarivalan’s long legal battle, which has seen many twists and turns in the past three decades. “Taking into account the fact that the applicant has spent more than 30 years in prison, we are of the considered view that he is entitled to be released on bail, in spite of the vehement opposition by the Centre,” said the interim order by the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai.

The bail is the result of Perarivalan’s three-decade-old legal battle. He had filed a pardon request before the governor of Tamil Nadu in 2015, soon after the AIADMK government passed a resolution in the assembly. The Centre, however, objected to the release of the convicts, and Perarivalan once again chose to take the legal path. When his pardon request received no response, he petitioned the Supreme Court, which in 2018 deemed it a fit case for release and returned it to the governor to decide on the matter. The state cabinet soon passed a resolution recommending the release of Perarivalan and six others. But once again, the governor sat on the file.