Written by Arun Janardhanan  Courtesy The Indian Express

Santhan is the only Lankan national among the four to have expressed his wish to return to the country. A top official in the Trichy district collector’s office said a review of Santhan’s papers are pending.

Nalini Sriharan (PTI

Close to four months after the six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were released on the Supreme Court’s orders, the four foreign nationals among them continue to spend their days in a special prison camp in Trichy, with no movement on their return to Sri Lanka or any other country of their choice.

Of the seven individuals whose convictions in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1999, A G Perarivalan was released in May last year while Nalini, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, V Sriharan alias Murugan, Robert Payas, Jayakumar, and Ravichandran alias Ravi were freed on November 11 last year. While the others walked free, the four Sri Lankan nationals – Nalini’s husband Sriharan alias Murugan, Santhan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar – were sent to the special camp pending a decision by the government on their exit from the country.

Multiple sources in Chennai and Trichy said their departure is being delayed as the Tamil Nadu government has been dragging its feet on paper work from their side. A source in the Sri Lankan High Commission said that while there are no requests pending from the Indian side for the issuance of passports or temporary travel documents for three of them – Murugan, Payas and Jayakumar.

Santhan is the only Lankan national among the four to have expressed his wish to return to the country. A top official in the Trichy district collector’s office said a review of Santhan’s papers are pending.

Murugan, Payas and Jayakumar have immediate relatives in European countries and are seeking to be with them.

Payas is considering options to go to Switzerland, where his mother and sister live, or to the Netherlands, where his son lives. However, two letters he sent to Chief Minister M K Stalin seeking help to leave India have elicited no response. Official sources confirmed that Payas’s letter to the Central government, the Tamil Nadu CM and the Redcross remain unanswered.

Jayakumar’s brother lives in Germany and his nephew (sister’s son) lives in Switzerland. Though his wife and son are Indian citizens and live in Chennai, he prefers to go to a foreign country for a permanent closure of his past,” said an official.

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Murugan is also waiting for his papers to be cleared before flying to a foreign country, likely London, where his daughter lives. His wife, Nalini, an Indian citizen, who was released along with him, often visits him at the Trichy camp. Murugan, an official said, has a pending case registered against him at Vellore prison.

Payas’s counsel R Prabhu said that at the camp, the four released convicts are being kept with many other convicts and undertrial prisoners because there is lack of clarity on the part of the government in dealing such cases.

While releasing them, the Supreme Court had noted that they had spent over three decades in jail and that their conduct was satisfactory. Unfortunately, their movement is restricted. Considering their undisputed reformed status, they should be allowed to live with dignity,” Prabhu said.