A.G. Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was informed by the State Information Commission (SIC) during a hearing via videoconferencing on Thursday that the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) submitted 66 sealed covers to the TADA court, advocate K. Tholkappian, said, quoting Perarivalan.
Perarivalan alias Arivu has pointed out that the contents of the sealed covers are vital to prove his innocence as one aspect of investigation was to ascertain who made the IED belt bomb used in the assassination, the advocate said.
The MDMA was constituted to probe the larger conspiracy angle behind the assassination.
Perarivalan appeared before the SIC via video conferencing from the Vellore Central Prison for Men. Chief Information Commissioner K.S. Sripathi, Information Commissioner Akbar Ali and Superintendent of Vellore Prison V. Karuppannan were present.
The convict had given a written submission to the SIC after the TADA court and First Appellate Authority/Registrar General, Madras High Court refused to furnish information on his application seeking details, such as investigation reports under the Right to Information Act.
Arguments on the written submission were taken up during the videoconferencing. Perarivalan had told the SIC that at the time of awarding death penalty, the Supreme Court had ordered that TADA Act was not applicable in this particular case. In such circumstances, the MDMA has been submitting reports to the Designated TADA court, he had pointed out. In the written submission, Perarivalan said since 2002, the MDMA is filing a periodical report before the Designated TADA Court for every three months in sealed covers.
According to a newspaper report, 63 such reports were filed. One area of investigation to be probed is that who actually made the IED belt bomb that killed former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and where it was made. “The outcome in this aspect is very much related to my case, because I was charged and convicted for providing a 9-volt battery cell as power source of IED,” he said in the submission.
Following this, the Chief Information Commissioner said the orders will be passed soon.
Life convict in Rajiv assassination case says contents vital to prove his innocence
