Rajiv killers get flying colours in Class XII exams

Perarivalan and Murugan, facing the gallows in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and lodged at the high-security prison here, have cleared the Class XII state board exams with flying colours, scoring a little over 91% and 81% respectively.

Perarivalan (41) and Murugan (43) scored 1096 and 983 marks respectively out of a total of 1200 in the exam, results of which were announced today, officials said.

Incidentally, Murugan, husband of Nalini -- another accused in the high-profile case - scored centum in commerce, while Perarivalan scored 198 in the same subject. Perarivalan scored 185 in Tamil, 183 in History and 182 in Economics while Murugan scored 173 in Tamil and 165 in English.

The two had appeared for the exams early in March at a centre inside the prison.

A total of eight inmates had appeared for the exams and all of them have passed, officials said. Perarivalan, Murugan and another death row convict in the case, Santham, have filed writ petitions challenging the rejection of their clemency plea by President Pratibha Patil after 11 years in 2011 and the Supreme Court is now looking into the matter.

Gandhi was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991 during an election rally.