Rajiv assassination case: Convict wants recall of order; case in Supreme Court

New Delhi: In a new twist in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the CBI to a petition filed by Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case seeking recall of the May 1999 verdict, which he alleged was obtained by “fraud” by the investigating agency by suppressing facts.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R. Banumathi issued notice to the CBI on the petition after counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan said 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. On Tuesday the court had asked the Centre to reply in three months its stand on Tamil Nadu’s proposal to grant remission and release all the seven life convicts in the case.

The court had earlier agreed to examine whether Perarivalan, life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case can be released on the basis of new evidence which has come to light—whether the two batteries supplied by him were the ones used in the ‘belt bomb’ that killed Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

The court had asked the Centre and the CBI to file a reply to the affidavit filed by the then CBI investigating officer V. Thiagarajan 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 that “he was in the dark as to the purpose for which the batteries were purchased, because it would have been an exculpatory statement and hence the purpose of recording the confession would be lost”.