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New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday prolonged by per week the parole of A G Perarivalan, serving life sentence within the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, for present process medical examine up. A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi additionally directed the Tamil Nadu authorities to supply police escort to Perarivalan throughout his go to to medical doctors in a hospital.
The parole, granted to the convict by the Madras High Court, was ending on Monday and now stands prolonged by yet another week. In a listening to performed through video conferencing, the bench mentioned the difficulty of grant of remission could be now dealt by it in January when it should lastly dispose of the case.
The court docket requested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to deal with it on all the problems raised within the petition on the subsequent date of listening to. The CBI, in its affidavit of November 20, has advised the apex court docket that the Tamil Nadu Governor has to take a name on grant of remission to Perarivalan.
The CBI mentioned Perarivalan is just not the subject material of additional investigation carried out by the CBI-led Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) which is conducting a probe on the facet of bigger conspiracy as per the mandate of the Jain Commission report. The prime court docket is listening to the plea of 46-year-old Perarivalan in search of suspension of his life sentence within the case until the MDMA probe is accomplished.
On November 3, the highest court docket had expressed unhappiness over the pendency of a plea by a convict in search of pardon within the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case for over two years with the Tamil Nadu Governor. The CBI, in its 24-page affidavit, mentioned, It is for the His Excellency Governor of Tamil Nadu to take a name on the difficulty whether or not remission is to be granted or not and in as far as reduction is worried within the current matter CBI has no function.
“Present petitioner is not the subject matter of the further investigation carried out by MDMA. The further investigation conducted by MDMA is only limited to the mandate provided to it by the Jain Commission Report it said, adding that a progress report by MDMA on further investigation and its status is submitted to the designated court in Chennai. The Jain commission of inquiry in the assassination of the former prime minister has recommended a probe into larger conspiracy by MDMA and it required monitoring/tracking of absconding suspects and the role of Sri Lankan and Indian nationals in the case.
The probe agency further said that the top court had already on March 14, 2018, dismissed an application by Perarivalan for recall of the May 11, 1999 verdict of the top court, holding him guilty in the case. It said, The claim of the petitioner that he is innocent and did not have knowledge about the conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi is neither acceptable nor maintainable.
The top court had earlier asked the counsel for petitioner, A G Perarivalan, whether the court can exercise its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to request the Governor to decide his plea of pardon filed under Article 161. Article 161 empowers a Governor to pardon a convict in any criminal case.
The top court had said, We don’t want to exercise our jurisdiction at this stage but we are not happy that a recommendation made by the government is pending for two years. The state government had earlier told the top court that the Cabinet has already passed a resolution on September 9, 2018 and recommended to the Governor for the premature release of all seven convicts in the case.
The MDMA was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of the Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi’s assassination. Perarivalan’s counsel had earlier said his role was only limited to procuring nine-volt batteries, which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that had killed Gandhi.
The prime court docket had earlier dismissed a plea of Perarivalan in search of recall of the May 11, 1999, verdict upholding his conviction. It had mentioned the fabric introduced on file earlier than it doesn’t encourage confidence to intervene with the decision during which Perarivalan and three others had been initially awarded the loss of life sentence, which was later commuted to life time period.
Perarivalan’s counsel had earlier mentioned that he was simply 19 years previous when the incident occurred and had no information of what he was doing and for what objective the batteries had been bought. Gandhi was assassinated on the evening of May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a lady suicide bomber, recognized as Dhanu, at a ballot rally.
Fourteen others, together with Dhanu herself, had been additionally killed. Gandhi’s assassination was maybe the primary case of suicide bombing which had claimed the life of a high-profile chief. In its May 1999 order, the highest court docket had upheld the loss of life sentence of 4 convicts — Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini. In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu Governor had commuted the loss of life sentence of Nalini on the premise of the state authorities’s advice and an enchantment by former Congress president and Rajiv Gandhi’s widow Sonia Gandhi.
On February 18, 2014, the highest court docket had commuted the loss of life sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, together with that of two different prisoners — Santhan and Murugan — on the grounds of an 11-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre.
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