On March 9, Supreme Court granted bail to A.G. Perarivalan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Over the past several years, demands for the release of all seven convicts in the case have continued strongly, with the Tamil Nadu assembly and the state cabinet passing multiple resolutions seeking their release.
The bail granted to Perarivalan alias Arivu, 51, has put the spotlight back on the convicts—Nalini Sriharan, Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Ravichandran, Jayakumar and Robert Payas—who have been in prison for 32 years. It also marks a significant phase in Perarivalan’s long legal battle, which has seen many twists and turns in the past three decades. “Taking into account the fact that the applicant has spent more than 30 years in prison, we are of the considered view that he is entitled to be released on bail, in spite of the vehement opposition by the Centre,” said the interim order by the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai.
The bail is the result of Perarivalan’s three-decade-old legal battle. He had filed a pardon request before the governor of Tamil Nadu in 2015, soon after the AIADMK government passed a resolution in the assembly. The Centre, however, objected to the release of the convicts, and Perarivalan once again chose to take the legal path. When his pardon request received no response, he petitioned the Supreme Court, which in 2018 deemed it a fit case for release and returned it to the governor to decide on the matter. The state cabinet soon passed a resolution recommending the release of Perarivalan and six others. But once again, the governor sat on the file.
There was no progress for two and a half years. The Supreme Court then criticised the governor and rebuked the Union government for opposing the release of the convicts and for failing to make a time-bound decision. It also criticised the Centre for apportioning blame to the CBI. The Centre had said that the CBI failed to make any significant progress in its investigation into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination. The court, for its part, remarked that the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency set up in 1998 to probe the conspiracy “has done nothing, nor do they want to do anything”.
Legally, Perarivalan and six others still remain prisoners with no reprieve. “Now, bail is a wrong term, because he has already served the sentence,” former Madras High Court judge K. Chandru told THE WEEK. “Now a parole or an amnesty terminating the punishment is the only reprieve.”
Living on, in memory: Visitors at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai | Bhanu Prakash Chandra
According to Chandru, the matter has long been moving “in circles”. This is the third time that the state has passed a resolution and sent it to the governor, and the Supreme Court has heard the case and then the Centre refused. “The BJP here has its own agenda, which is not different from the Congress agenda in this case. For some reason, it is not willing to go by the sovereign government which is ruling the state,” said Chandru.
For Perarivalan, the bail is still a huge relief. “It is not equal to getting released, but at least my son can live his life now,” Perarivalan’s mother, Arputham Ammal, told THE WEEK.
Perarivalan had been on parole for nine months when he was granted bail. His two-room house in Jolarpettai, 220km north of Chennai, had been a prison away from prison. He was confined to the first floor of his house, with no visitors other than close relatives. He underwent treatment for a bladder infection recently. Though the family now wants Perarivalan to get married, he is having second thoughts, fearing that the bail is just interim relief.
An atheist and an avid reader, Perarivalan doubts whether the bail would make much difference in his life. Prison had claimed a crucial period of his life. “The only difference now is that he can move around outside; in parole, he could not move out of the house,” said Arputham Ammal. “We patiently fought for the past 31 years in court and we are still awaiting justice for him. He is innocent; he got bail because of his good conduct in prison. I thank everyone who stood with me in fighting for my son in these 32 years. I want him to be acquitted now.”
The bail granted to Perarivalan has legal implications for the six other convicts. All of them are likely to move court seeking bail. Already, the bail petitions filed separately by Nalini in Chennai and Ravichandran in Madurai are pending before the Madras High Court. Both Nalini and Ravichandran are on parole now.
“Ravi came out on parole four months ago,” Ravichandran’s mother, P. Rajeshwari, told THE WEEK. “He got treated for his chest pain caused by hypertension and stress—the outcome of long incarceration.”
Ravichandran, alias Ravi, who was accused number 16 in the case, became the first of the seven convicts to get parole a few years earlier, when his father died. He has been on parole for the past three months, and is hopeful that the High Court will soon grant him bail, like the Supreme Court did in Perarivalan’s case.
“Parole is just like being in prison,” said Rajeshwari. “There will be 30 policemen around us every time. If there is a visitor in the house, they would stay next to him. It is like jail away from jail.”
Ravi was accused of having close links to the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, and he allegedly knew Sivarasan, the mastermind behind the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. Charges of conspiracy against Ravi, however, were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1999, and his death sentence was commuted to life. Charges against him under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act were also dropped the same year.
Ravi’s writ petition seeking bail is likely to be heard by the Madras High Court in a few days. “I believe the court will grant bail to my son, given the fact that the Supreme Court had granted it to Perarivalan,” said Rajeshwari.
Nalini, too, is hopeful of attaining freedom. The 54-year-old was accused number one, and she married Murugan alias Sriharan, a Sri Lankan citizen who was also convicted in the case. Nalini is the lone surviving conspirator who was present at the site of the blast that killed Rajiv. She has had quite a dramatic life: before turning 25, she had played her part in the assassination plot, survived the explosion that killed Rajiv and 21 others, received the death sentence, loved and married a fellow convict and gave birth to a child in prison—only to be forced to live alone, and finally escape the noose.
Nalini’s daughter, Harithra, is a doctor now. Harithra lived in jail till age five and was later united with Murugan’s mother in Sri Lanka and then moved to the UK. Nalini and Murugan were not able to meet their daughter for more than 25 years. But they were allowed to meet each other in prison once every 15 days for at least 15 minutes. But that, too, stopped after Covid-19 restrictions began.
Sources close to Nalini said she was suffering from severe trauma because of the long incarceration. “My daughter has suffered a lot in the past 32 years,” said Nalini’s mother, Padmavathi, who is ailing.
Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life in 2000, following her plea to Sonia Gandhi. “She wants to live a peaceful life, away from prison. She wants to be with her daughter,” her younger brother, P.S. Bhagyanathan, told THE WEEK. Bhagyanathan and Padmavathi were among the 24 people arrested in the case and later released.
Nalini got parole in December last year, after her mother Padmavathi filed a petition in the Madras High Court. This is the second ordinary parole since her incarceration in 1991. She got her first parole in 2019 for one month and 20 days. She also has had two emergency paroles lasting just hours—the first one to attend her brother’s wedding and the second to attend her father’s funeral in 2016. Nalini is now living with her mother, brother, sister and close relatives in Vellore.
If granted bail by the High Court, she plans to spend time with her daughter. Harithra’s wedding was planned two years earlier and Nalini was granted parole then. The wedding, however, was called off.
Murugan is currently in Vellore jail. Unlike Nalini or Ravi, he has not seen the outside world in 32 years. His relatives say he has turned spiritual and has grown a long, godman-like beard.
Santhan, who was accused number two, has been in jail since 1991. His death sentence was commuted to life. Like Murugan, he has never been granted parole, and nor has he had a family visitor calling on him in jail, except for a couple of occasions. Just months before the pandemic restrictions set in, Santhan’s younger brother Mathi Suthakaran, who lives in Jaffna with his mother, visited him once.
“We are helpless. We do not know how to get my brother back home,” Mathi told THE WEEK over phone from Jaffna. Mathi was just six when Santhan was arrested in Chennai. For many years, the family did not know that the CBI had arrested Santhan, whose Sri Lankan name is T. Suthenthiraraja. “I want my son back home,” said Santhan’s mother, Thillaiambalam Maheshwari. The 73-year-old fasts every Friday for her son’s well-being.
When Mathi visited his brother in prison, Santhan asked him, “Did I deceive you, my brother?” According to Mathi, Santhan was referring to an incident that happened more than 30 years ago, when he left Jaffna for India. “I asked him for two balloons when he left home,” said Mathi. “He bought it for me. One balloon burst immediately.” Mathi kept the other balloon safe, believing that it would last till his brother returned home. “But then it did not last long. Not even for a month,” he said. “When I met anna, he remembered the balloons he got for me.”
Known to be a soft-spoken person, Santhan is now 53. “Why do they fear my son even now?” asked Maheshwari. “Do you think he can cause any harm to anyone any more? I am in the last phase of my life. I believe he will come back home and perform my last rites when I die. He could not perform the last rites for his father. We did not even inform him about my husband’s death.”
According to Mathi, Santhan manages a temple inside Vellore jail and performs daily pujas. “He is deeply immersed in Hindu beliefs,” said Mathi. “I know my brother offers prayers every day at the prison, while my mother goes to the Nallur Murugan temple every day to pray for my brother.”
Accused number nine and ten, Robert Payas and Jayakumar, are also hopeful of being granted bail. Payas and Jayakumar are brothers-in-law and Sri Lankan citizens. Payas, now 56, came to India in September 1990 with his wife and sisters. According to the CBI’s report submitted in the Supreme Court, he had links with the LTTE and was closely associated with Sivarasan. The court in 1999 observed that Payas faced atrocities at the hands of the Indian Peacekeeping Force, because of which he ended up losing a child.
Payas has a son, Thamilco, who lives abroad with his wife. Unlike other convicts in the case, not much is known about him. He was granted his only parole for 30 days in 2019, when his son got married. “Perarivalan got bail through his individual petition in the Supreme Court, based on his conduct in the prison and his long incarceration. It may not be applicable for all other prisoners, even when all the other six, including Payas have similar background and conduct,” said S. Prabu Ramasubramanian, advocate for Payas and Jayakumar.
Like Payas, Jayakumar, too, had close links with Sivarasan. His wife, Shanthi, is an Indian citizen who lives in Chennai with her son. She was also arrested in 1991 and released by the court in 1999.
Jayakumar and Payas’s writ petition seeking release based on good conduct and long incarceration has been pending in the Madras High Court since 2011. “Jayakumar is like any obedient student in a classroom,” said Ramasubramanian. “He is not very intelligent, but a very responsible person.”