HC grants parole to Rajiv Gandhi assassin Robert Payas

The Madras High Court on Thursday granted 30-day parole to Robert Payas, one of the seven convicts serving life term in the sensational Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, for planning his son’s wedding.

Payas becomes the third life convict in the case to get parole in recent times – Nalini and Perarivalan were released on parole to arrange for her daughter’s wedding and to be with his ailing father respectively. All seven convicts were sentenced to death but they were commuted to life.

A division bench of justices M.M. Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raaman granted parole to Payas from November 25 to December 24. He has been asked not to interact with media and political leaders during the parole period.

Pyas had sought parole to arrange for his son’s wedding contending that he had never availed ordinary leave during his 28 years in prison. The seven convicts have been in prison since June 1991, a month after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by an LTTE female suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur where he had come to address an election rally.

The Tamil Nadu Cabinet has passed a resolution approving their release from jail but Governor Banwarilal Purohit is yet to act on the file. The release of the seven convicts is a highly emotive issue in Tamil Nadu with almost all political parties stamping their approval to the proposal.