Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras High Court on Tuesday that the Sri Lankan government has issued travel documents for one of the convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination, Santhan alias T Suthenthiraraja, who was released along with others in 2022 following a Supreme Court order.

Additional Public Prosecutor R Muniapparaj made the submission before a division bench of Justices R Suresh Kumar and K Kumaresh Babu during a petition filed by Santhan seeking orders to facilitate his return to his native country. He is currently detained at the high-security detention camp for foreigners in Tiruchy.

“The Sri Lanka deputy high commission has sent the travel documents to the Tamil Nadu government to pave the way for Santhan to return,” Muniapparaj told the court. He added that the state government has forwarded these travel documents to the Centre for issuing necessary orders to allow him to get back to his country.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) AR L Sundaresan, representing the Ministry of External Affairs, stated that no documents were received so far by the department and informed that he would forward the documents received through the court to the concerned authorities. Necessary orders may be passed in a week’s time, he promised.

Directing the Centre to file a report on the matter, the bench adjourned the case to Feb. 29 for further hearing.

The Supreme Court, on Nov 11, 2022, ordered the release of all six convicts - Nalini, her husband Murugan alias Sriharan, Ravichandran, Santhan, Jayakumar, and Robert Payas - from the prisons where they had been incarcerated for more than three decades.

Of them, Murugan, Santhan, Robert Payas, and Jayakumar were detained at the high-security foreigners detention camp in Tiruchy. Santhan filed the petition in the court seeking orders to allow him to return to Sri Lanka to take care of his ailing mother.

Source: The New Indian Express
--Agencies