CHENNAI: After three decades in prison, three persons convicted for their role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, returned home on Wednesday after being deported from India.
The three ex-convicts, Murugan, alias Sriharan, S Jeyakumar and B Robert Payas left by a Sri Lankan carrier to Colombo, sources said. They were among the seven convicts in the case freed by the Supreme Court in November 2022.
After their release, they were lodged in a special camp in Tiruchirappalli. Sources said they were brought to Chennai on Tuesday and left for Colombo on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan High Commission here had granted travel documents to the trio.
Murugan had earlier moved the court seeking a direction to authorities concerned to provide him a photo ID.
Another Lankan national convicted in the case, Santhan, had died here recently even as the process of his deportation was still in motion. Earlier, Murugan's wife Nalini had also moved the court, seeking a direction to the authorities to permit her husband to appear before the Sri Lankan High Commission here with an escort to get an 'all country passport'. The couple intended to join their daughter who is now residing in the UK.
The Tamil Nadu government had earlier informed the Madras High Court they could travel back home once the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) issued a deportation order.