The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to AG Perarivalan, who has been serving a life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The SC considered his long incarceration of over 30 years and the fact that there was no complaint against him when he was out on parole.
On February 18, 2014, the SC had commuted the death sentence given to Perarivalan to life imprisonment.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai directed the convict, whose death penalty was commuted into life term in 2014, to report to a local police station near Chennai in the first week of every month and ordered that the additional conditions for release would be decided by a local court there.
“There is no dispute regarding the fact that the applicant has undergone the sentence of 32 years. We are informed by the counsel for the applicant that he was released on parole thrice earlier and there was no complaint about his conduct during his release,” the bench said in its order.
It also took note of the submission that the convict is on parole at present as well, and there is sufficient material produced about his conduct during his long incarceration.
The bench considered the fact that Perarivalan has acquired educational qualifications and has been suffering ill health during incarceration. “Taking into account the fact that the applicant has already 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 of the ASG (additional solicitor general, who appeared for the Centre), subject to the final disposal of the SLPs (special leave petitions) here,” the court said.
The bench said the pleas have to be heard finally in view of the stand taken by the Centre that the State Government did not have the power to entertain the mercy petition under Article 161 (power of the Governor to grant remission) of the Constitution in view of the fact that the convict has already taken the benefit of remission earlier when his death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment.
The top court has been hearing pleas, including the one in which Perarivalan sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the MDMA probe is completed.
The CBI, in its affidavit of November 20, 2020, had told the apex court that the Tamil Nadu Governor has to take a call on grant of remission to Perarivalan. Later, the Governor referred the mercy plea to the President of India saying he did not have the power to decide it.
The mercy plea has been pending since then and the apex court said that till the time the legal issue over the power to grant remission is decided, it would grant the bail to the convict.
The State Government had earlier told the top court that the Cabinet had already passed a resolution on September 9, 2018, and recommended to the Governor for the premature release of all seven convicts in the case. In its May 1999 order, the top court had upheld the death sentence of four convicts — Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham, and Nalini. In April 2000, the Tamil Nadu Governor had commuted the death sentence of Nalini on the basis of the state government’s recommendation and an appeal by former Congress president and Rajiv Gandhi’s widow Sonia Gandhi.
On February 18, 2014, the top court had commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, along with that of two other prisoners — Santhan and Murugan — on the grounds of an 11-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre.