Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination convict AG Perarivalan gets 30 days parole after 26 years

The Tamil Nadu government granted parole of 30 days to AG Perarivalan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on Thursday.

Perarivalan for the first time got parole in the last 26 years after orders from the state government were sent to Vellore prison. His death sentence, along with fellow convicts Santhan and Murugan, was commuted to life imprisonment in 2014.

He was arrested at the age of 19 in connection to assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

A letter dated August 24 by Additional Chief Secretary to Government Niranjan Mardi to the Vellore Deputy Inspector General of Prisons cited health condition of the convict’s father and instructed that he should be provided with strong police escort during the period of leave.

The ordinary leave has been granted to Perarivalan as per rule 19 of the Tamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules 1982.

The parole has been granted to Perarivalan on request of his mother, Arputham Ammal. She had filed petition with the Chief Minister's’ special cell seeking the release of their son on parole to meet his bedridden aged father.

According to his mother this is the first time that the convict was seeking parole since his imprisonment in 1991. Her husband Gnanasekaran, 74, is suffering from different ailments, including hypertension and asthma.