(Image source from: twentyfournews.com)
The Supreme Court has asked the Government of Tamil Nadu to file a detailed status report regarding the issue of releasing the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, within two weeks. The Supreme Court has posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
A notice has been issued by the apex court to the CBI and has asked it to file a response within three weeks of the application which has been filed by A G Perarivalan who is the convict in the assassination case of Rajiv Gandhi.
A G Perarivalan was initially awarded death sentence in the case which was later changed to imprisonment for the lifetime.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21 in the year 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, during the night, by a woman suicide bomber at a poll rally. The woman has been identified as Dhanu. This attack has killed fourteen others which also included Dhanu herself.
The death sentence for the four convicts had been upheld by the top court in May 19999. the convicts of the assasination case were identified as Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini.
In April 2000, the then governor of Tamil Nadu has commuted the death sentence of one of the four convicts, Nalini on the recommendation of the state government and an appeal was also made by Sonia Gandhi who was a former Congress president.
The death sentence of Perarivalan has also been commuted to life imprisonment on February 18, 2014 along with two other prisoners, by the top court on the grounds of delay off 11 years in taking the decision regarding their mercy pleas by the Center. The other convicts whose death sentence has been commuted along with Perarivalan were Santhan and Murugan.
Perarivalan has said in his application that he has been held guilty for supplying two nine-volt batteries which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that killed Rajiv Gandhi while the Multi- Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) which is headed by a CBI official, is investigating relating to improvised explosive device.
Regarding the issue of release of the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court has now asked Tamil Nadu Government to file a detailed status report within two weeks and the matter has been posted for further hearing after the two weeks that has been provided.
By Shrithika Kushangi
