The Supreme Court on May 18 ordered the release of AG Perarivalan who was convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The court in its order, which comes three days ahead of the thirty-first death anniversary of the former prime minister, invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution directing Perarivalan's release.
Perarivalan was arrested in June 1991. He was accused of buying two battery cells for Sivarasan, the LTTE man who masterminded the assassination. The batteries were used in the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi, his assassin and 14 others on May 21, 1991 in Sriperumbudur town of Tamil Nadu.
Perarivalan was awarded the death sentence but it was commuted to a life term by the top court in 2014, owing to a delay in deciding his mercy petition.
Perarivalan applied for early release in 2018. While his plea was accepted by the Tamil Nadu cabinet, the decision was kept in abeyance by the governor.
He knocked on the apex court's door seeking release on the basis of the recommendations made by the Tamil Nadu government in September 2018.
Directing his release, the court said the Tamil Nadu cabinet considered relevant grounds and factors while recommending Perarivalan's remission. The delay, however, was on the part of the governor, which could be subject to judicial review.
The ruling in the case was reserved in May 2021, when the court said it would restrict itself to the question of reference of the cabinet's decision by the governor to the President.
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