Mother of convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case meets Amit Shah to seek release of son and six others

india

Updated: Jul 29, 2019 21:47 IST

The mother of one of the convicts serving life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on Monday met Union home minister Amit Shah and submitted a memorandum seeking the release of her son and six others undergoing life imprisonment in the case.

Seventy-one-year-old Arputham Ammal submitted a petition to Shah to secure the release of her son, AG Perarivalan alias Arivu. She was accompanied by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) president Thol Thirumavalavan, MP, and VCK general Secretary D Ravikumar, MP.

The petition also sought the release of six other life convicts in same case - Nalini, Murugan alias Sriharan, Santhan, Robert Payas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran who have been in jail since 1991.

Thirumavalavan also urged Shah to consider the speedy release of the seven convicts under Article 161 of the Constitution, which empowers the Governor of a state to remit the sentence of a convict.

For more than two decades, Arputham Ammal had been fighting for the release of her son, who she claims is innocent.

A former CBI officer, V Thiagarajan, in a sworn affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2017 had said that the premier investigating agency had omitted a part of the confessional statement of Arivu, who was 19 years old then. It had resulted in his conviction and the officer had regretted it in the affidavit.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 by a woman LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally at Sriperumpudur near Chennai.

The Tamil Nadu government, in September 2018, had recommended to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to release Nalini and the six other convicts, whose death sentence was commuted to life in line with the Supreme Court verdict. The governor is yet to decide on the cabinet resolution.

The state government had also sent a reminder to the Governor on the resolution, recommending the release of the seven convicts.