Chennai: Newly appointed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday ordered 30-day ordinary leave for Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict AG Perarivalan.
Stalin, considering a petition from Arputhammal, mother of Perarivalan seeking leave on medical grounds for her son, relaxed relevant rules and ‘ordered grant of 30 day ordinary leave’, PTI reported an official release as saying.
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Perarivalan, who is lodged in Chennai’s Puzhal Central Prison, is serving life sentence in this case.
The Madras High Court had last year granted him 30-day parole which was later extended by the Supreme Court by a week for medical check-up.
The 46-year-old Perarivalan had sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the CBI-led Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) probe is completed.
On various occasions, the Supreme Court had expressed its dissatisfaction over the pendency of pardon plea of Perarivalan for over two years with the Tamil Nadu Governor.
The top court had, in 2014, commuted Perarivalan's sentence to life imprisonment citing long pendency of his mercy petition.
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Earlier this year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has informed the Supreme Court that Tamil Nadu Governor has recorded that President is the competent authority to deal with pardon plea of the convict.
The former prime minister was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur near Chennai by a woman suicide bomber Dhanu at an election rally of the Congress Party.