Rajiv Gandhi assassination: Supreme Court dismisses Perarivalan’s plea challenging his conviction
The CBI had earlier told the court that the convict’s petition had no merit.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of AG Perarivalan, who was convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1999.
Perarivalan had urged the court to recall its judgment. The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi and M Shantanagoudar said it does not need to interfere with its 1999 verdict.
Perarivalan had moved the top court on January 24, claiming that he was unaware of the conspiracy to kill the former prime minister. The court had said the questions the convict raised were serious and debatable, and had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a reply in the matter.
Supreme Court dismisses the plea of convict AG Perarivalan to recall its judgment convicting him in 1998 in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
— ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2018
In its reply, the CBI told the court that Perarivalan’s plea had no merit. The agency’s Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency said that the petition was not maintainable, and recommended that a heavy fine for the convict.
Perarivalan, and two other convicts – Murugan and Santhan – are serving life imprisonment sentences in the case. The Supreme Court had commuted Perarivalan’s death penalty to life in jail in 2014. Perarivalan has spent 26 years in jail – 23 of those in solitary confinement.