Mother of Rajiv Gandhi’s killer urges not to impede release of her son

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Arputhammal, mother of one of the killers of late Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, on Sunday (20) urged political leaders not to impede the release of her son, A.G. Perarivalan. Earlier, the Chief of India’s regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Muthuvel Karunanidhi, said that the Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam’s indication would have a “political fallout” in southern Tamil Nadu due to the ongoing parliament polls. Sathasivam had indicated that the court would pronounce its verdict on a petition for the release of all seven convicts serving life sentence before 25 April. “We have been making all arrangements with regard to the release of my son and at this time a leader suddenly commenting on the issue will confuse the entire matter. So we held this news conference and I now request all the concerned people not to disturb the path of release of my son anymore,” Arputhammal said in Chennai. The Court commuted the death sentences on three men for their involvement in the killing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment because of an 11-year delay in deciding on their petitions for mercy. Gandhi was killed by an ethnic Tamil suicide bomber while campaigning in an election in the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur in May 1991. The three Indian men - tried as Santhan, Murugan, Perarivalan - were members of a Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Gandhi’s killing was seen as an act of retaliation after he sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.