A.G. Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has written to the State Home Department seeking copies of correspondence between the Tamil Nadu Government and Raj Bhavan on his petition seeking premature release under Article 161 of the Constitution.
Calling for information within 48 hours since the issue pertained to his life and liberty, Perarivalan, who is serving his 30th year of imprisonment, said his petition under the Right to Information Act followed the Supreme Court’s direction to the State on February 11 this year to apprise it of the Governor’s decision on his petition. The convict, presently lodged in the Puzhal central prison, Chennai, had in December 2015 filed a petition seeking premature release. Three years later, acting on the apex court order, State Cabinet passed a resolution recommending the release of the seven life convicts in the case.
Since then he has been sending reminders to the Governor seeking expeditious disposal of his case.
In his petition to the Home Department sent last week, Perarivalan said after the Supreme Court directed the State to update the Governor’s decision on his plea for premature release, the matter was yet to come up for hearing. Referring to a report published in The Hindu on March 21 on the State Law Minister informing the Assembly that the Governor had informed the State that he would consider taking a decision only after the final report of the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), the convict sought information/documents under the ‘life and liberty’ clause of the RTI Act.
He asked for copies of the communication between the Home Secretary and the Governor’s Secretariat in the wake of the Supreme Court directions to the State on January 21 and February 11 this year. The details sought included a flow chart on the dates of correspondence details of the officers who handled the files and the notings.
Early this year, Perarivalan had moved the Tamil Nadu Information Commission seeking disciplinary action against the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Raj Bhavan and levy of penalty on the official for “deliberately” not furnishing information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. He said the PIO replying to his petition on the status of his plea had given a “vague, ambiguous, incomplete and misleading” reply. The convict contended that the information sought by him should have been disclosed proactively under Section 4(1)(b)(v) of the Act. However, the PIO chose to give an "evasive" reply, he alleged.
Our legal correspondent adds: The State government on Wednesday produced before the Madras High Court a letter written by it to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seeking a clarification as to whether former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts S. Nalini and her husband Murugan alias V. Sriharan could be allowed to make WhatsApp video calls to UK and Sri Lanka.
Justices N. Kirubakaran and V.M. Velumani perused the communication and asked State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan as to why the government had not made any recommendation to the Centre for allowing the convicts to make the video calls on humanitarian grounds. They pointed out that the letter merely seeks the views of the Centre on the issue and nothing much else.