NEW DELHI: The Union government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit would decide on State government's recommendation for the remission of sentence of AG Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, in three to four days. Taking note of the submission by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao adjourned the case for four weeks.
During an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure over the State governor for not taking any decision on the remission plea of Perarivalan for over two years. The bench had asked the State government to request Purohit to expedite his decision on the State's recommendations for the remission of sentence of the convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Perarivalan had applied to the governor for pardon on December 30, 2015. Almost three years later, in September 2018, the Supreme Court asked the governor to decide the pardon plea as he deemed fit. Three days after that, on September 9, 2018, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet recommended to the governor to remit Perarivalan's sentence and release him forthwith, but the governor is yet take a call on the same.
Gandhi was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally in Sriperumpudur in May 1991. The Bench was hearing a petition filed by Perarivalan seeking release from the prison based on the recommendation made by the TN government. Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber, identified as Dhanu, at a poll rally. On February 18, 2014, the apex court had commuted the death sentence of Perarivalan to life imprisonment on grounds of a delay of 11 years in deciding the mercy pleas by the Centre.