Ex-convicts of Rajiv Case Leave for Sri Lanka

Chennai: Three ex-convicts, who had spent 30 years in jail for their involvement in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, left home to Sri Lanka by an Air Lanka flight from Chennai on Thursday after spending two years at a Special camp in Trichy following their release in 2022.

Murugan, Jayakumar, and Robert Payas, the three ex-convicts, were brought to Chennai amidst heavy security from Trichy and taken inside the airport by 6 am itself for immigration clearance as they did not possess passports and other travel documents.

After the immigration procedures that took a long time at the counter were completed, the three passengers were kept at a secluded place in the airport surrounded by security personnel and were escorted into the aircraft as the flight was about to take off.

The three persons were accompanied by their lawyer to Sri Lanka on the flight that left at 10.05 am. The departure of the three Sri Lankan Tamils to their homeland brings to an end a long-running saga involving a criminal trial, legal tangles, and diplomatic intrigues that began with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur on the night of May 21, 1991.

After the verdict on the case was pronounced in 1998 by the trial court that held its proceeding inside the Poonamalee prison that was turned into a fortress then as all the accused were detained there, there were several appeals and petitions for mercy filed by different persons at different points of time.

On Wednesday, among those who turned up at the airport to see off the three persons were Murugan’s wife Nalini, and her relatives. Though Murugan had wanted to join his daughter, Harithra, who was born after the arrest of the parents in connection with the assassination case, in London and applied for a photo-affixed identity card to apply for a visa in January.

Harithra was born when Nalini was in jail facing trial, is now a doctor in London, and is under the care of her paternal grandparents. Even Nalini had expressed a desire to join her in London after the end of her incarceration in 2022.

Murugan approached the Madras High Court with a plea to issue him the identity card when no action was taken by the authorities on his plea for the identity card. In the court, the State government announced that the Sri Lankan ex-convicts would be issued travel papers by the Sri Lankan High Commission and would hence be allowed to travel to their homeland soon.

Of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi case who were released from jail in 2022 at the behest of the Supreme Court, four were Sri Lankan nationals – Santhan, Murugan, Robert Payas, and Jayakumar. As the other three were Indian citizens, including Nalini, they were allowed to go home from prison while the four Sri Lankans were sent to the special camp.

Santhan, who developed health complications during his stay at the camp, died on February 28 at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai and his body was flown to Sri Lanka for the last rites later. The other three Sri Lankans were sent home on Wednesday.