Rajiv killing: SC seeks TN govt reply on convict’s mercy petition

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform whether a decision has been taken by it on a mercy petition of a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The apex court also pulled up the Centre for filing a similar status report on a probe done by a Cbi-led Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) into unravelling a larger conspiracy behind the killing of the former prime minister.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta asked the state government to inform the court about the decision taken by it under Article 161 of the Constitution. The article gives a governor the power to pardon a person who has been proved guilty in court.

The top court was hearing the plea of 46-year-old A G Perarivalan, who has sought suspension of his life sentence in the case till the MDMA’S probe is completed.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for Perarivalan, said though the state has taken a decision on his mercy petition but his application is pending with the governor.

The MDMA was set up in 1998 on the recommendations of the Justice M C Jain Commission of Inquiry which had probed the conspiracy aspect of Gandhi’s assassination. It is headed by a CBI official and comprises officers f rom t he I ntelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and the Revenue Intelligence, among other agencies.

The top court told the Centre: “Can you tell us what the difference (is) between the status report filed in April 2018 and November 2019. There is no difference at all.” “We have gone through all of your status reports filed in the case,” it said.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for Centre, said the government has not received any response to the letters rogatory (LR) sent to Sri Lanka and other countries.

The SC had on January 14, expressed its displeasure over the latest status report filed by the MDMA on its probe.