Who is AG Perarivalan, Rajiv Gandhi killer ordered release by Supreme Court

AG Perarivalan was 19 years old when he was arrested on June 11, 1991, twenty days after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur.

Perarivalan was arrested from Periyar Thidal, Chennai, by officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was charged with providing two 9-volt batteries to the mastermind of the assassination, Sivarasan, for the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi.

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He has been in jail since, barring a few sets of parole.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered the release of Perarivalan, who is almost 50 now. The court had granted bail to him on March 9 this year, noting that he had been behind bars for many years and that he had displayed good behaviour during parole.

Perarivalan was handed the death penalty by an anti-terrorism court in 1998, which was initially upheld by the Supreme Court, but the top court later commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2014.

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Perarivalan’s parents, who have spent many more years away from him than with him, had campaigned hard to have the death penalty overturned. They celebrated as their “Arivu” was released. Perarivalan said before all else he wanted to “breathe a bit. Give me some time,” when asked about future plans.

Perarivalan has an electronics and communications engineering diploma. He has denied buying or supplying the batteries for the belt bomb that wa used to kill Rajiv Gandhi and has earlier said that his educational qualifications were used to portray him as a bomb expert.

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From death row, Perarivalan wrote an appeal to the President of India, which his mother Arputham Ammal published also in Hindi as a booklet. Mother and son had compiled it meticulously, Arputham had said in 2011. Perarivalan would write at the Vellore central prison, where he was lodged, and Arputham would have it typed and take back the manuscript to her son for corrections. She would then get it typed again. The Hindi translation had taken six months more.

Arputham is now 76, Perarivalan’s father T Gnanasekaran aka Kuildasan even older. They live in Jolarpet about 200 km from Chennai.

Perarivalan’s release could pave the way for the release of six other convicts currently serving life sentences in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

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The bench, also comprising Justice B R Gavai, noted that there is is no dispute about Perarivalan having undergone 32 years of imprisonment and that the court was informed he was released on parole twice earlier and there has been no complaints.

Perarivalan had said that the Governor was yet to take a decision on his prayer for remission and that the delay was a ground for bail.

Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur. Gandhi was in the midst of an election campaign. He got out of his car and was walking towards the dais where he was set to deliver a speech.