TIRUCHY: A year has passed by since the Supreme Court ordered for the premature release of all seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case but a delay in deportation orders continues to confine four of them from Sri Lanka at the special camp on the premises of the Central Prison in Tiruchy.
District Collector and special camp in-charge M Pradeep Kumar, who had during the time of detention of the convicts -- V Sriharan alias Murugan, Santhan, Jayakumar and Robert Payas – last year told media persons that the four would remain on the premises until their deportation orders were received from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), told TNIE that the Union government was yet to issue it. “Once we receive it we can make arrangements for their deportation,” he said.
Advocate Pugazhendhi, who represents convicts Murugan and Santhan, said, ‘’There is no reason why they should still be in the special camp after a year of their release. There are cases where Sri Lankan convicts who served lifetime imprisonment and released some months ago were deported to their country but in this case, it is still pending.”
Condemning the delay in issuing deportation orders, Thiyagu, general secretary of Tamil Desiya Viduthalai Iyakkam, said, “Earlier the FRRO was a procedural organisation; it has now become politicised. The convicts should legally be deported but due to unsaid reasons it is still pending.’’
While Pugazhendhi expressed Murugan’s wish to be with his daughter in London, Santhan with his mother in Sri Lanka and the other two wanting to move to The Netherlands, he alleged that the four were instead kept under the close watch of police personnel round-the-clock. “What is the need for the police there? They are facing more restrictions in the camp than what they faced in prison,” he added.
Vice-principal of the prison department’s warder training school in Tiruchy, Mohan Kumar J, said, “The special camp is situated next to our facility. Police personnel carrying weapons are guarding it. The cops are entering our premises without permission. For each shift, six policemen are deployed close to the camp’s compound wall. They have no right to enter our premises. We are afraid of misfiring.”
However, Collector Pradeep Kumar refuted the allegations. “All the four are free in the camp. They are being treated just like the 59 others in the camp. We have provided overall police protection for the camp and not exclusively for the four convicts.”