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India's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of one of the life convicts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
A two-judge bench of the apex court pronounced the judgment in the wake of a plea seeking the release of AG Perarivalan, who has already served 31 years in jail.
Gandhi was assassinated on 21st May in 1991 by a suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when he was campaigning for the Congress party at Sriperumpudur in Tamil Nadu state.
Gandhi's assassination was seen by many as a retaliation by the LTTE (now defunct) for India's involvement in Sri Lanka's civil war in the late 80s. Gandhi, then Indian PM, deployed peacekeepers there in 1987.
Perarivalan, now 50, was arrested on June 11, 1991. He was subsequently sentenced to life in jail along with a few others for aiding Sivarasan, the LTTE man who had hatched the conspiracy to eliminate Gandhi.
