The Madurai bench of Madras high court on Wednesday ordered the release of the accused convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on parole.
Justice V. Ramasubramaniyan directed the state home secretary, ADGP and Madurai central prison Superintendent to release Ravi alias Ravichandran serving life sentence in the Madurai prison for more than 20 years now in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on ordinary leave for 15 days.
In a writ petition filed through her counsel T. Lajapathi Roy, the convict’s mother P. Rajeswari, 56, of Aruppukottai had sought to release her son on parole to help settle property issues in her family.
She submitted that Ravi was arrested on January 5, 1992 and on January 28, 1998 all 26 accused including her son were sentenced to death by Poonthamalle special court. After an appeal before the apex court, death sentence was confirmed for three accused while it was commuted to life for four persons including Ravi.
The petitioner said that though her son had completed 15 years of actual imprisonment in 2007 itself, he was not released. Her representations were rejected on the contention that he was involved in a political murder.
Stating the reason for her demand to release him on parole for a month, Rajeswari said she has properties in Madurai and Aruppukottai in her name. Since she was under severe stress due to protracted legal proceedings and growing old, she wanted to transfer the properties to her legal heirs for which she wanted her son to be released on parole.
“As my son has already completed 20 years behind bars, I believe that he will be released soon. Under such circumstances, I have to ensure him a peaceful life.
So, I want to transfer certain properties in his name at the earliest as my health is failing,” Rajeswari said. The petitioner also submitted that the probationary officer had already certified her son’s conduct as good and recommended his release.