May 18, 2022: The Supreme Court has ordered the release of AG Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who has been behind bars for 31 years.

This verdict is expected to pave the way for the release of other six convicts in the case including Nalini Sriharan and her husband Murugan, a Sri Lankan national.

Nineteen years old at the time of the assassination, Perarivalan was accused of buying the two 9-volt batteries for Sivarasan, the LTTE man who masterminded the assassination. The batteries were used in the bomb to assassinate the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Perarivalan was sentenced to death by a TADA court in 1998. The next year, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence but commuted it to life imprisonment in 2014. In March this year, the top court had granted him bail.

Shortly after, Perarivalan had appealed seeking an early release from jail.