Top court refuses to recall verdict for convict in Rajiv assassination case Dumps Ex-CBI Officer’s Statement
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 15.03.2018
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to recall its verdict convicting A G Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and declined to give credence to a claim of a former CBI officer, who had recorded his confessional statement, that he was wrongly held guilty for conspiracy charges.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi and M Shantanagoudar said there was no error in the apex court’s judgement passed in 1999 and there was no need to re-examine it.
Perarivalan, who was sentenced to death before it was commuted to life and has been in jail for the last 26 years, had sought recall of his conviction on the basis of the stand taken by probe officer V Thiagarajan who submitted that the accused’s version of not being aware of the plot to kill the former PM was not recorded in his confessional statement which was heavily relied upon by the courts to convict him.
Thiagarajan, a 1981 batch IPS officer, had recorded the confession of Perarivalan in 1991in which he had admitted that he purchased two batteries and handed them over to Sivarasan, which were used to detonate the human bombs to kill Rajiv Gandhi. The officer had also said the convict was not aware about the purpose for which batteries were to be used and did not know about the assassination plan but he, however, did not record that statement as the probe was still going on.
Thiagarajan filed an affidavit in SC and explained the reason under which the Perarivalan’s particular statement was “omitted” from his confessional statements and virtually supported his plea for remission of sentence. “It is humbly stated that accused Perarivalan’s statement 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 be an exculpatory statement and hence the whole purpose of recording the confessional statement would be lost. Further, I did not deem it fit to record this exculpatory statement because the investigation regarding the bomb was pending at the time of recording the confessional statement,” he said in his affidavit.
The bench, however, was not convinced with Perarivalan’s submission and said there was other incriminating evidence against him and the apex court’s verdict could not be recalled on the basis of officer’s statement. It said that 1999 verdict had attained finality which could not be reconsidered.
The bench, however, asked CBI's Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) to expeditiously complete the probe into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of the former PM and asked it to file status report within four weeks.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 15.03.2018
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to recall its verdict convicting A G Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and declined to give credence to a claim of a former CBI officer, who had recorded his confessional statement, that he was wrongly held guilty for conspiracy charges.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi and M Shantanagoudar said there was no error in the apex court’s judgement passed in 1999 and there was no need to re-examine it.
Perarivalan, who was sentenced to death before it was commuted to life and has been in jail for the last 26 years, had sought recall of his conviction on the basis of the stand taken by probe officer V Thiagarajan who submitted that the accused’s version of not being aware of the plot to kill the former PM was not recorded in his confessional statement which was heavily relied upon by the courts to convict him.
Thiagarajan, a 1981 batch IPS officer, had recorded the confession of Perarivalan in 1991in which he had admitted that he purchased two batteries and handed them over to Sivarasan, which were used to detonate the human bombs to kill Rajiv Gandhi. The officer had also said the convict was not aware about the purpose for which batteries were to be used and did not know about the assassination plan but he, however, did not record that statement as the probe was still going on.
Thiagarajan filed an affidavit in SC and explained the reason under which the Perarivalan’s particular statement was “omitted” from his confessional statements and virtually supported his plea for remission of sentence. “It is humbly stated that accused Perarivalan’s statement 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 be an exculpatory statement and hence the whole purpose of recording the confessional statement would be lost. Further, I did not deem it fit to record this exculpatory statement because the investigation regarding the bomb was pending at the time of recording the confessional statement,” he said in his affidavit.
The bench, however, was not convinced with Perarivalan’s submission and said there was other incriminating evidence against him and the apex court’s verdict could not be recalled on the basis of officer’s statement. It said that 1999 verdict had attained finality which could not be reconsidered.
The bench, however, asked CBI's Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) to expeditiously complete the probe into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of the former PM and asked it to file status report within four weeks.
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