The Madras High Court has, on Thursday, granted 30-day parole for AG Perarivalan, who has been lodged in the prison nearly for three decades after convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. 

The court's order of awarding parole for the long-term prisoner has come weeks after the Tamil Nadu government has rejected the plea seeking parole for Perarivalan, which was moved by her mother Arputhammal. In her plea, Arputhammal, who has been fighting to get her son released from the prison, has sought parole for her son for 90 days owing to the risks of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Initially, her plea was rejected by the state government by citing that the prisoner was not eligible to take ordinary leave under the prison rules. Arputhammal had moved a habeas corpus plea to the Madras High Court and during the previous hearing, Additional Public Prosecutor Prabhavathi has said that the government has rejected the parole plea as he was not eligible to take leave. 

The Tamil Nadu Home Department had submitted that parole cannot be granted on the grounds mentioned by Arputhammal as the government has issued the Standard Operating Procedures that are being followed in the prisons to contain the spread of the COVID-19 infection among the inmates. Along with the Home Department, the state prisons department had also rejected the parole plea by citing that he was not eligible for parole this year as he had already awarded parole in 2017 and 2019. 

After the hearing, the court had adjourned the matter and it resumed the proceeding on Thursday during which the high court bench comprised of Justices N Kirubakaran and VM Velumani had rejected the state government's argument that it was safer to stay inside the prison during the outbreak. The court had then ordered to grant parole for Perarivalan for 30 days and it also pronounced that he should be released from the prison in a week since the date of the order issued. 

As per the order, Perarivalan would be stepping out of prison by next week. The long-term prisoner is one among the seven convicts - Nalini, Murugan, Santhan, Robert Payas, Ravichandran, and Jayakumar who were convicted in the assassination case of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. They have been in the prison since 1991, becoming the long-term inmates in the country. 

Perarivalan has been lodged in Vellore Central Prison and he was granted parole in 2017, for the first time since 1991, to attend his ailing father and he was again awarded parole last year from November 12, 2019, to January 12, 2020. He has availed 60 days of ordinary leave through parole.