Rajiv Gandhi assassination: SC to hear plea of convict AG Perarivalan in January

The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for hearing in January and made it clear that it will not grant any more adjournments in the plea filed by Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict AG Perarivalan seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018.

A Bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao adjourned the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central government, requested for an adjournment.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayan, appearing for Perarivalan, said that since Perarivalan had been in custody for 30 years some relief should be granted to him.

The Bench then posted the matter in January.

The Central government had earlier apprised the apex court that the Tamil Nadu Governor, after considering all the facts on record and relevant documents, said that the President of India is the "appropriate competent authority" to deal with the pardon plea of AG Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The top court by its January 21, 2021 order had asked the Governor to decide the Perarivalan's remission of sentence plea.

The apex court has been hearing a petition filed by Perarivalan seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018.

The top court had earlier expressed unhappiness over the fact that the recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu state government for the remission of the sentence had been pending before the Governor for over two years.

Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally.

On February 18, 2014, the apex court had commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding the mercy pleas by the Centre.

( With inputs from ANI )