Rough justice

By Lakshmi Subramanian- Friday, November 29, 2013 

Her wrinkled face and grey hair speak volumes about Arputhammal's long battle to save her son from the gallows. A frail woman in her sixties, she is the mother of A.G. Perarivalan, one of the three convicts facing capital punishment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. “My son will return home soon,” she said. “He is innocent. I have hopes.”

A 55-minute documentary, called Uyirvali—Sakkiyadikkum Satham, on Perarivalan's life from his childhood to the assassination case, has boosted her hopes. In the documentary, released by People's Movement Against Death Penalty (PMADP), former CBI officer V. Thiagarajan says “there were lapses in recording the statement under Section 15(1) TADA [Terrorism and Disruptive Practices (Prevention) Act]”.

Thiagarajan reveals that he failed to record Perarivalan's confession verbatim. According to him, Perarivalan told him that he had purchased a battery without knowing that it would be used to make the bomb that killed Rajiv. Thiagarajan, by his own admission, later altered the statement. “It wouldn't have qualified as a confession statement without his admission of being part of the conspiracy. I omitted a part of his statement and added my interpretation. I regret it,” said Thiagarajan. He told THE WEEK that he had made the revelation because, “if not now, everything would go irretrievable as ever”.

He said his revelation gave Perarivalan the right to plead for acquittal. “His is no longer a mercy petition, but a petition claiming his right to be reheard,” said Thiagarajan.

However, D.R. Kaarthikeyan, former CBI director and chief of the special investigation team that probed the case, said there was nothing that warranted a retrial at this juncture. “This is absurd. If that's the case, people will ask for retrial in the Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi assassination cases, too. Thiagarajan was given a job to do. They were all given tasks to do. The statements have gone through legal scrutiny. Three eminent judges gave a well-reasoned judgment. Nothing new has come out. Nobody was convicted on the [basis of] the confession statement,” he told THE WEEK.

But Arputhammal sees hope. “We will move the designate trial court to examine the SIT officials. Had the confession of Perarivalan been recorded in full, he would not have been convicted,” said S. Prabu Ramasubramanian, Perarivalan's counsel.

PMADP members said Perarivalan now had the option of moving the Supreme Court seeking acquittal. “Who made the bomb, from where the RDX was procured, where and how the bomb was assembled and how the pilot trial happened, still remain unanswered,” said a legal expert. According to retired Supreme Court judge K.T. Thomas, death penalty at this juncture will be double jeopardy, as the accused has served more than a life term in jail.

Thiagarajan's revelation has come in handy to pro-Tamil groups who have been demanding clemency for the all three death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. “They are all waiting to get to that day when they could claim how much they fought for the acquittal,” said a political analyst.

Reopening the case would pose trouble for the Congress as crucial elements of the assassination have not been revealed. “Any revelation at this juncture will haunt the Congress, which is already facing backlash in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” said an observer.