After 4 yrs, guv says can’t take call on plea to pardon Perarivalan

After 4 yrs, guv says can’t take call on plea to pardon Perarivalan

Purohit Says Only Prez Can Decide, Sends It To Centre

New Delhi: 5.2.2021 

The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the application filed by life convict A G Perarivalan to the Tamil Nadu governor seeking pardon in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case has been forwarded to it by the governor on the ground saying that it is for the President to decide on the issue. The plea has been pending with the governor for over five years.

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao which was hearing a petition filed by Perarivalan seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation by the state government in September 2018, was informed by the Centre on January 21 that the governor would take a decision within three to four days and the court deferred the hearing on the plea for two weeks.

In a affidavit, the home ministry said, “His Excellency the Governor of Tamil Nadu considered all the facts on record and after perusal of the relevant documents , recorded that the President of India is the competent authority to deal with the said request for remittance matter vide his order dated January 25. The proposal received by the Centre will be processed in accordance with law.” TNN

Perarivalan moved guv for pardon in 2015

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had on January 21 told the court that Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit will take a decision on the 2018 recommendation of the state government which favoured release of seven convicts including Perarivalan in the case. The assurance was given after the apex court expressed concern over the delay in taking decision and decided to examine whether it could intervene to pass direction.

Perarivalan was awarded the death penalty in 1991for his involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was charged with providing a 9-volt battery to co-conspirator Sivarasan for the explosive device used to kill Gandhi.

After he spent over 20 years on death row, the Supreme Court commuted Perarivalan’s death penalty to life imprisonment in February, 2014.

Perarivalan had applied to the governor for pardon in December 2015 and the Supreme Court in September 2018 asked the governor to decide the plea “as he deemed fit”. The state government in the same month had recommended to the governor to remit the sentence of all the seven convicts. The governor, however, didn’t decide on the TN cabinet recommendation and kept the matter pending.