Mumbai: The mother of AG Perarivalan, one
of Rajiv Gandhi`s assassins who is on death row, on Monday
demanded release of her son from jail, claiming he was
"innocent".
"My son is innocent and he should be released. He was not
involved in the incident," Arputham Ammal told reporters.
She claimed Perarivalan was not in any way involved in the
conspiracy leading to the assassination of the former Prime
Minister near Chennai on May 21, 1991.
"When the incident took place he was studying in college
and was not involved in hatching the conspiracy. He was not
even at the spot...but had gone to watch a Tamil movie when
Rajiv was assassinated," the 65-year-old woman told a press
conference here.
"If Nalini`s death sentence can be commuted to life
imprisonment, then why can`t they do to my son`s sentence?"
Ammal asked.
Besides Perarivalan, the two other death row convicts in
the Rajiv assassination case are Murugan and Santhan. Last
month, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted an unanimous resolution
asking the President to reconsider the trio`s mercy petitions
and commute their death sentences into life terms.
Activists of NSUI, student wing of Congress, staged a
protest at Press Club, venue of the conference, and tried to
disrupt the media meet.
Shouting pro-Rajiv slogans, NSUI leader Suraj Thakur
said, "He is our role model and his assassins should not be
spared."
Human rights activist and former Bombay High Court judge
Hosbet Suresh, who also addressed the press, said, "He
(Perarivalan) has suffered a lot as he is in jail since the
last 21 years. The evidence against him is very slender."
"He is an exemplary prisoner...inside the jail he has
passed so many exams," Suresh said.
PTI
