Times
of India: Chennai: Thursday, 25 September 2014.
The attempts
of AG Perarivalan, who is undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case, to get details and documents about the constitution and
proceedings of the CBI special court, TADA court and the Multi-Disciplinary
Monitoring Agency (MDMA) have been delayed yet again after a scheduled video
conference between him and the Chief Information Commissioner was postponed on
Wednesday due to a 'technical' glitch.
Perarivalan
applied for these information through a set of 11 questions on August 12, 2013,
when he was still a death row convict but was not furnished with full details,
forcing him to approach the high court registrar, the first appellate authority
and now the Chief Information Commissioner.
His sentence
was commuted to life imprisonment in February 2014. Though Perarivalan had
requested to allow him in person before the State Information Commission, the
hearing was suggested to be conducted through video conferencing from prison on
Wednesday afternoon.
"The
hearing, based on the appeal filed before the State Information Commission, was
slated for 3.30pm at the video conference room at the prison. But the link
snapped within a few minutes and it was informed that an alternate date will be
announced later," said K Tholkappian, his legal counsel, on Wednesday
evening.
Perarivalan's
application was filed under the Section 7 (1) of the RTI Act which entitles him
to receive the information within 48 hours if it is crucial to the applicant's
life and liberty.
"The
information was sought when he was facing death penalty but answer to just one
question was initially provided and that too which was about the number of
staff deployed in the special court and their allowances and expenditure. None
of the other details was provided, forcing Perarivalan to appeal before higher
authorities," Tholkappian added.
Perarivalan
was initially arrested on charges of procuring battery cells used in the
explosive device used to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi and was arrested by the CBI
in 1991. His initial death sentence was commuted to life on February 18.
However, he is still in prison as the Central Government has opposed his
release despite the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release him.