Chennai: After serving more than three decades of the prison sentence, Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered release of AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Perarivalan, a 19-year-old at the time of the assassination, was accused of providing batteries that were used to detonate an explosive-laden belt by a suicide bomber to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
From then till now, there have always been ongoing legal battles, protests and demands by state governments and various other parties to release Perarivalan.
Let us have a look at the history of the case and trace the timeline of events that led to the release of Perarivalan.
May 21, 1991: Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden belt while touching his feet during an election rally at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. The suicide bomber was identified as Themozhi Rajarathinam alias Dhanu, who was a member of LTTE.
May 22, 1991: A CBI team is constituted to investigate the assassination case.
June 1991: The CBI officials who took up the case for investigation arrested Perarivalan for providing two nine-volt batteries to Sivarasan, who was the mastermind behind the arrest. The CBI booked a case under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).
May 20, 1992: The SIT charge-sheeted against 41 accused including 12 dead persons.
January 1998: A trial court provided a death sentence to Perarivalan and 25 others
May 1999: The Supreme Court acquitted 19 persons who were related to the case. However, they upheld the death sentence provided to four--Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan--of the seven accused.
The death sentence given to three accused including Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Jayakumar was commuted to a life sentence.
2001: Three convicts including Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan submitted mercy petitions to President after Nalini's death penalty was commuted to life by TN Governor based on a public appeal made by Sonia Gandhi and TN cabinet recommendation.
2006: Perarivalan also released his autobiography 'An Appeal from the Death Row' where he mentioned how he was implicated in the conspiracy.
August 11, 2011: The then President Pratibha Patil rejected the mercy petitions moved by the convicts. The SC also fixed the date to hang the convicts as September 9, 2011.
August 29, 2011: A 20-year-old woman immolated herself and died protesting against the death sentence given to the four convicts.
November 2013: Former CBI officer V Thiagarajan who noted down the confession of Perariavalan in TADA custody revealed that he altered the statement to make it qualify as a confession. He said that Perarivalan never said that he was aware that the battery was bought for making a bomb.
February 2014: The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of the four convicts to life imprisonment. It also permitted the state government to release the convicts for good conduct after a life term
February 2014: A day after the SC judgment, Jayalalithaa ordered the release of the seven convicts in the case under section 432 (power to remit sentences) of CPCR. However, the Supreme Court stayed the release of the convicts and told the state to maintain the status quo.
December 2015: Perarivalan submitted a mercy petition to Tamil Nadu Governor again stating that he was kept in solitary confinement for over 24 years.
August 2017: Tamil Nadu government granted parole to Perarivalan
September 9, 2018: Tamil Nadu cabinet headed by the then CM Edappadi K Palaniswami recommended the release of all seven convicts in the case
January 2021: SC ordered the Governor to take a decision and said that the court would be forced to release them if the delay continues
May 2021: Perarivalan was released on parole
March 9, 2022: SC grants bail to Perarivalan
May 11, 2022: SC completes hearing
May 18, 2022: SC orders release of Perarivalan