SC seeks CBI response on plea to recall order in Rajiv killing

A BENCH LED BY JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI GAVE

THE CBI THREE WEEKS TO FILE ITS AFFIDAVIT AND WILL HEAR THE MATTER AGAIN ON FEBRUARY 21

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked the CBI on Wednesday for a response to an application filed by a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking a recall of the top court’s May 1999 order holding him guilty for participating in the conspiracy hatched to kill the former Prime Minister.

AG Perarivalan based his plea on a recent statement given by then Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer, V Thiagarajan, who admitted the convict was not part or aware of the conspiracy.

A bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi gave the CBI three weeks to file its affidavit and will hear the matter again on February 21.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber. The former PM had gone to attend an election rally at the site. Fourteen others were also killed in the human bomb attack.

According to the CBI case, Perarivalan supplied two nine-volt batteries which were allegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) that killed Gandhi. The convict denied the charges.

Thiagarajan’s recent statement and the affidavit he filed before the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Perarivalan.

The officer was then the superintendent of police of the CBI and had recorded his confessional statement under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. In his confession to the CBI, Perarivalan had expressly said that he was unaware of the conspiracy at the time when he purchased the batteries, Thiagarajan’s affidavit read.

The SC had upheld the death sentence of four convicts — Perarivalan, Murugan, Santham and Nalini — in May 1999. A year later the Tamil Nadu governor commuted Nalini’s death sentence.

The top court had on February 18, 2014, commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan to a life sentence on the grounds that there was a delay of 11 years on the part of the executive to decide on their mercy petitions.

Meanwhile, the CBI’S MultiDisciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) submitted a sealed report to the court on the progress it has made on the larger conspiracy involved behind the assassination.

MDMA filed the status report because Perarivalan’s petition also seeks to know the headway the agency has made in its probe.