Rajiv assassin’s RTI query: Why my plea was rejected?

Times of India: Chennai: Monday, April 15, 2013.

One of the three convicts on death row for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, AG Perarivalan, will on Monday be on a videoconference with Central Information CommissionerSatyananda Mishra on a complaint against Rashtrapati Bhavan and the ministry of home affairs on a petition seeking to know why his mercy plea was rejected in August 2011.

A notification on the videoconference was fixed three days ago after Perarivalan, 42, sent an appeal to the RTI chief on the home ministry's refusal to reply to his petition.

In his petition, Perarivalan asked for the reasons behind the rejection of his mercy plea and on what grounds the ministry arrived at the decision.

Senior information commission officials said it is the first time that the CIC will give a hearing to a convict facing the gallows.

Perarivalan sent repeated queries to the home ministry from August 2011, asking for the reasons stated for the rejection of his mercy petition by then President Pratibha Patil. But officials apparently blocked the petition, although the RTI Act mandates that information officers reply to a petition within 30 days.

A trial court handed Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan the death sentence in 1999 for the May 21, 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv Rufus, one of the counsels of the three convicts, said jail officials had made arrangements for the videoconferencing session two days ago after receiving a notification on the matter from the CIC. "After his petitions and queries were repeatedly ignored by officials, Perarivalan sent a direct appeal to the CIC by telegram three months ago," Rufus said. "He noted in his appeal to the CIC that home ministry officials had admitted that there had not been a complete investigation of his role in the making of the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi."

Perarivalan had been charged with providing a 9-volt battery for the explosive device to assassination conspirator Sivarasan. Perarivalan, now 42, was 20 years old at the time of the assassination.

A senior prisons officer said all central jails in the country have videoconferencing facilities.