SC rejects recall plea of convict in Rajiv case
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a writ petition filed by A. G. Perarivalan, convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, serving life sentence seeking his release on the ground that he was not aware of the purpose for which he purchased two nine- volt batteries purported to have been used by Dhanu in the belt bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R. Banumathi and Shantanagouder dismissed the petition seeking recall of the May 1999 verdict, which he alleged was obtained by “fraud” by the investigating agency by suppressing facts.
It was submitted that as the entire basis of the conviction in May 1999 was based on confession made by the accused under Tada, the verdict should be recalled. Perarivialan relied on an affidavit filed by the then CBI investigating officer V. Thiagarajan in October 2017 that the CBI omitted that part of Perarivalan’s confession that he was not aware of the purpose for which he supplied the two nine volt batteries.
Perarivalan quoted an affidavit filed by the CBI investigating officer V. Thiagarajan on October 27, 2017 that “he was totally in the dark as to the purpose for which the batteries were purchased was not recorded by me, because it would have been an exculpatory statement and hence the whole purpose of recording the confessional statement would be lost.”
Rejecting the arguments, the bench observed, “Perarivalan’s role in the conspiracy is well established. The confessional statement made before Thiagarajan has to be examined as a whole and not in isolation with reference to two batteries.”
Justice Gogoi told counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, “You ( Perarivalan) purchased the batteries on May 7, 1991 and the incident happened on May 21, 1991. The circumstantial evidence suggests that the two batteries might have been used for detonating the bomb.”