New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court today asked thegovernment to respond to a plea of one of the convicts in theRajiv Gandhi assassination case seeking suspension of hissentence till the CBI concluded its probe into the conspiracybehind making of the bomb.
A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinhaasked the government to clarify its stand within two weeks onthe plea by convict A G Perarivalan, whose death sentence wasearlier commuted to life term by the apex court.
In his plea, Perarivalan has told the court that he washeld guilty for supplying two nine volt batteries which wereallegedly used in the improvised explosive device (IED) thatkilled Gandhi in 1991, but probe by CBI's Multi DisciplinaryMonitoring Agency (MDMA) relating to IED was still going on.
The convict has said he has spent 26 years behind bars inconnection with the case while the Tamil Nadu government hasalready decided to set him free by remitting the remainingportion of his sentence.
He claimed the state government has sought concurrence ofthe Centre on remission of his sentence, but the Centre hasnot taken any decision in the matter for the past two years.
"One of the primary purpose of further investigation andconstitution of MDMA in CBI is to find out the origin and makeof the IED and the larger conspiracy that consumed the life ofRajiv Gandhi," the plea, filed through Perarivalan's counselGopal Shankarnarayanan, said.
"However, even after 18 years of investigation, the CBIcould not conclude its investigation with relation to the IED,its origin and make due to one reason or the other," it said.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21,1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber,identified as Dhanu, at an election rally. Fourteen others,including Dhanu herself, were also killed.
This was perhaps the first case of suicide bombing whichhad claimed the life of a high-profile global leader.
In his plea, 45-year-old Perarivalan has referred to anaffidavit filed by V Thiagarajan, the then superintendent ofpolice of CBI, and claimed that his conviction was based onhis confessional statement recorded by this officer.
It claimed that Thiagarajan had said in his affidavitthat Perarivalan, while making confessional statement beforehim, had expressly stated that at the time of purchase of thebatteries, he had absolutely no idea for what purpose thesewere going to be used.
Referring to his affidavit, the convict claimed that theCBI officer had said at that point in time, as the probe wasstill in progress, they were not sure about it and thus, thisparticular statement was "omitted" from being recorded in theconfessional statement.
The plea alleged that one of the suspects of CBI's MDMA,Kumaran Padmanaba alias KP, was the chief arms procurer forLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the relevant timeand was presently in the custody of the Sri Lankan government.
"An effective and a whole-hearted investigation wouldthrow much light on the make and origin of the IED. In theseunique facts and circumstances, the petitioner's sentence maybe suspended till CBI (MDMA) takes the investigation to itslogical conclusion," the plea said.
It also referred to one Nixon alias Suren, who is amongone of the 21 suspects in MDMA's probe, and claimed that hewas aware of the belt-bomb being made.
"Once the CBI (MDMA) concludes its investigationpertaining to the above said Nixon alias Suren, there is everylikelihood of the applicant (Perarivalan) being completelyabsolved from the guilt which he is bearing on his shoulderssince the day of his arrest," the plea said.
He requested the court to suspend his sentence till theMDMA concluded its investigation relating to the IED and thelarger conspiracy behind making of the bomb or till the filingof a charge sheet or closure report by the agency.
The Centre had earlier filed in a sealed cover a reporton the investigation being carried out on the conspiracyaspect behind the making of the bomb that had killed Gandhi.
The apex court had on August 17 asked the Centre and CBIto apprise it of the probe being carried out on the conspiracyaspect behind the making of bomb after Perarivalan had claimedthat this aspect was not being probed properly.
Perarivalan's counsel had said that besides this aspect,which was directed to be probed by Justice Jain Commission,there were other issues like the missing files concerning thesecurity provided to Rajiv Gandhi and the murder of a Delhi-based journalist, Rajinder Kumar Jain, which were notinvestigated thoroughly.
The apex court had on February 18, 2014 commuted thedeath sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment, along withtwo other condemned prisoners -- Santhan and Murugan -- ongrounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding their mercy pleasby the Centre. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKSARC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.