Madras HC grants 30-day parole to Robert Payas, one of the convicts serving life sentence for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday granted a 30-day parole to Robert Payas, one of the seven convicts serving a life term for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. A division bench of justices MM Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raaman gave the order on a plea by Payas seeking parole for making arrangements for his son’s wedding. [caption id=“attachment_5603861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Madras High Court. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] He has been given parole from 25 November till 24 December. The conditions of the parole include a bar on him interacting with the media, political parties or personalities and an undertaking to keep good conduct and not disrupt public peace. The petitioner had in his plea in September, submitted that he has been in prison since 16 August 1991 and has completed actual imprisonment of more than 28 years. During this period, he said, he had not utilised the emergency or ordinary leave provided to him under Tamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules, 1982 despite his good conduct in the prison. In July, the court had granted one month parole to Nalini, another convict in the case, after she argued her plea in person for seeking the relief to make arrangements for her daughter’s wedding. Payas and six other people, Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, S Jayakumar and Nalini, are serving life term in connection with the assassination of Gandhi by a suicide bomber at an election rally in Tamil Nadu on 21 May 1991.