Rajiv Gandhi case: SC seeks government's reply on plea to suspend sentence

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to respond to a plea of one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case seeking suspension of his sentence till the CBI concluded its probe into the conspiracy behind making of the bombA bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha asked the government to clarify its stand within two weeks on the plea by convict A G Perarivalan whose death sentence was earlier commuted to life term by the apex courtSupreme CourtIn his plea Perarivalan has told the court that he was held guilty for supplying two nine volt batteries which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device IED that killed Gandhi in 1991 but probe by CBIs Multi Disciplinary onitoring Agency MDMA relating to IED was still going onThe convict has said he has spent 26 years behind bars in connection with the case while the Tamil Nadu government has already decided to set him free by remitting the remaining portion of his sentence He claimed the state government has sought concurrence of the Centre on remission of his sentence but the Centre has not taken any decision in the matter for the past two yearsOne of the primary purpose of further investigation and constitution of MDMA in CBI is to find out the origin and make of the IED and the larger conspiracy that consumed the life of Rajiv Gandhi the plea filed through Perarivalans counsel Gopal Shankarnarayanan said However even after 18 years of investigation the CBI could not conclude its investigation with relation to the IED its origin and make due to one reason or the other it saidRajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber identified as Dhanu at an election rally Fourteen others including Dhanu herself were also killed This was perhaps the first case of suicide bombing which had claimed the life of a highprofile global leaderIn his plea 45yearold Perarivalan has referred to an affidavit filed by V Thiagarajan the then superintendent of police of CBI and claimed that his conviction was based on his confessional statement recorded by this officer It claimed that Thiagarajan had said in his affidavit that Perarivalan while making confessional statement before him had expressly stated that at the time of purchase of the batteries he had absolutely no idea for what purpose these were going to be usedReferring to his affidavit the convict claimed that the CBI officer had said at that point in time as the probe was still in progress they were not sure about it and thus this particular statement was omitted from being recorded in the confessional statementThe plea alleged that one of the suspects of CBIs MDMA Kumaran Padmanaba alias KP was the chief arms procurer for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE at the relevant time and was presently in the custody of the Sri Lankan governmentAn effective and a wholehearted investigation would throw much light on the make and origin of the IED In these unique facts and circumstances the petitioners sentence may be suspended till CBI MDMA takes the investigation to its logical conclusion the plea saidIt also referred to one Nixon alias Suren who is among one of the 21 suspects in MDMAs probe and claimed that he was aware of the beltbomb being made Once the CBI MDMA concludes its investigation pertaining to the above said Nixon alias Suren there is every likelihood of the applicant Perarivalan being completely absolved from the guilt which he is bearing on his shoulders since the day of his arrest the plea said He requested the court to suspend his sentence till the MDMA concluded its investigation relating to the IED and the larger conspiracy behind making of the bomb or till the filing of a charge sheet or closure report by the agencyThe Centre had earlier filed in a sealed cover a report on the investigation being carried out on the conspiracy aspect behind the making of the bomb that had killed Gandhi The apex court had on August 17 asked the Centre and CBI to apprise it of the probe being carried out on the conspiracy aspect behind the making of bomb after Perarivalan had claimed that this aspect was not being probed properlyPerarivalans counsel had said that besides this aspect which was directed to be probed by Justice Jain Commission there were other issues like the missing files concerning the security provided to Rajiv Gandhi and the murder of a Delhibased journalist Rajinder Kumar Jain which were not investigated thoroughly The apex court had on February 18 2014 commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment along with two other condemned prisoners Santhan and Murugan on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding their mercy pleas by the Centre