CHENNAI: Three former convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case returned to Sri Lanka on Wednesday, nearly two years after being freed by the Supreme Court in the case.
Agency reports quoting police sources said V Murugan, B Robert Payas, and S Jayakumar reached the Colombo International Airport around 11 am (local time) on Wednesday on a flight from Chennai. The Colombo police crime investigation department recorded their statements for more than five hours at its office, reports said.
Jailed for their role in the assassination of the former PM for more than 30 years, the three left by a Sri Lankan aircraft from Chennai to Colombo at 10am on Wednesday.
‘Couple wanted to join daughter in the UK’
An official from the Sri Lankan High Commission that granted them travel documents, told TNIE that trio will undergo investigation in Sri Lanka as they have fled the country illegally.
Murugan had earlier moved the Madras High Court seeking direction to authorities to provide him a photo ID card for getting a Sri Lankan passport. Murugan’s wife Nalini had also moved the court, seeking a direction to authorities to permit her husband to appear before Sri Lankan High Commission in Chennai with an escort to get an ‘all country passport’.
The couple wanted to join their daughter who is now residing in the UK. On Wednesday, Nalini joined Murugan at the airport, ahead of their journey back home.
The three were among the seven convicted for their involvement in the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi in a suicide bomb attack by the banned LTTE near Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. Capital punishment awarded to them was later commuted to life. They were freed by the Supreme Court in November 2022. After their release, they were lodged in a special camp in Tiruchy. Another Lankan national convicted in the case, Santhan, had died recently.