Perarivalan seeks details on remission directive

April 13, 2016 12:00 am | Updated 08:13 am IST - CHENNAI:

Perarivalan

Perarivalan

A.G. Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has filed a petition under the RTI Act seeking copies of the Union government’s communication to States asking them to refrain from granting remission of sentence to convicts.

In his petition addressed to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Perarivalan, who is currently lodged in Vellore Central Prison, said 2016 marked the 25th year of his incarceration without bail or parole.

After the Supreme Court commuted his death penalty to life imprisonment on February 19, 2014, the Tamil Nadu government decided to order his premature release.

However, the Union government approached the Supreme Court against this and got a stay. A Constitution Bench later ruled that in matters relating to remission of sentence in cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the State should get the prior concurrence of the Centre.

Perarivalan has also sent an RTI plea to the Superintendent of Yerawada Prison, Pune, seeking to know the grounds on which Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt obtained premature release from jail.

“When there was no reply to the RTI petition, we filed an appeal. The prison authorities wrote back in Hindi saying that the Postal Order worth Rs. 10 enclosed with the petition had been purchased in 2011 and could not be encashed now. Hence, the plea was rejected. We have sent a fresh appeal with a new Postal Order,” K. Sivakumar, counsel for Perarivalan, said.

Drawing parallel

Drawing a parallel between Perarivalan’s case and that of the actor, Mr. Sivakumar said both offences were described as an act of terror and were investigated by the CBI.

“While Sanjay Dutt was given the benefit of premature release, the same is being denied to Perarivalan. We want to know whether the Centre’s concurrence was obtained in the actor’s release,” he said.

The RTI plea sent to the MHA also seeks copies of orders passed by the Centre in 2010-15 granting remission to prisoners across the country. Pointing out to the delay in getting response to RTI petitions, Perarivalan said instead of collecting and providing documents where they were available, the information officers were tossing his petition from one officer to anotherereby defeating the very purpose of the RTI Act.

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