New Delhi: AG Perarivalan, who was one of seven convicted in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s assasination, was granted bail by the Supreme Court today. Perarivalan spent over three decades in jail. A Bench of justice L Nageswara Rao granted the bail stating that he had undergone imprisonment for 32 years.
The bail was granted despite severe opposition from the Assistant Solicitor General KM Nataraj. The court also stated that the bail will be subject to conditions by the trial court and he shall report to the CBI officer on the first of every month, but Perarivalan has been asked to report to the local police station for the time being. He is on parole currently, and has been on parole three times earlier.
Perarivalan was 19 years old when he was arrested for his involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. A trial court had sentenced 26 persons to death in the case, the Supreme Court, in 1999, acquitted 19 persons and convicted only seven.
Of the seven, Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were awarded death sentences while the other three were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of the four convicts to life, including for Perarivalan, citing delays in deciding on their mercy pleas.
