In 2013, a Tamil documentary titled ‘Uyirvali – Sakkiyadikkum Satham‘, was released. It made a case for the abolition of death penalty by showing the life of Perarivalan, the now-released convicted terrorist in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The documentary was released by the People’s Movement Against Death Penalty (PMADP), an organization founded by the late Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer.
This organization along with Perarivalan’s mother Arputhammal had launched a massive campaign rallying support for Perarivalan. A website named ‘saveperarivalan.com’ was created as part of the campaign against his death sentence which documented his photos, letters and articles showing how justice had been erred. The documentary was just another attempt to give Perarivalan an image makeover portraying him as a victim.
But this documentary became a watershed moment in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case as it changed the course of Perarivalan’s case. It is in this documentary that a former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer named Thiagarajan who was given the responsibility of recording the confessions of the convicts said that he erred in recording the statement of Perarivalan.
“I am Thiagarjan. I belong to the Indian Police Service. When Rajiv Gandhi Assassination took place in 1991, I was Superintendent of Police, CBI, Kerala Branch. Since I was an SP who knew Tamil, I was inducted into the team. Everybody in the team were given one assignment. I was given the assignment of recording the confessional statements. I had recorded around 16-17 confessional statements.”, he says in the documentary film.
“What is pricking me is that, at that time Arivu (Perarivalan) told me that he didn’t know why he was being asked to buy them (the batteries) and what they will do with it. He told me that he didn’t know about it at all. But while writing the confession statement I omitted the part where he said he didn’t know about it at all. The investigation was progressing then but I didn’t write that particular statement.” he says.
“Though strictly speaking law expects you to record the statement verbatim word for word and letter for letter, practically we are not doing that.”, the former CBI officer says in his testimony.
Thiagarajan goes on to shift the blame on the judiciary saying that ‘they came to a conclusion superficially’ based on the evidence presented before them.
“I felt it then itself. But nothing coud be done at that stage. That’s why I always felt a little uneasy in Arivu’s case. The confessional statement has not been appreciated the way it should’ve been appreciated.”, Thiagarajan says in that documentary.
Apparently Sivarasan (another convict in the case) had sent a message to Pottu Amman through wireless communication on May 7, 1991 stating that except Subha and Dhanu (the suicide bomber) nobody knew about the assassination plan.
Citing this, Thiagarajan in the documentary says “Automatically, it excludes the prior knowledge that Rajiv Gandhi is going to be assassinated. It excludes the knowledge of everybody else. So, this is a very solid, uncontested, unchallenged, unchallengeable evidence.”.
“I have also played a role in the sense that it was me who recorded the confession. And as I said, one thing, the confession itself is not very clear and the benefit of doubt… why the benefit of doubt, even there is subsequent internal evidence to clearly say that Arviu did not know before hand that Rajiv Gandhi was going to be killed at all. So, if he did not know that there was going to be killing, how can you make him party to the killing? It is illogical. It is against the evidence on record. Therefore, you look at it from any angle, it will be miscarriage of justice if the extreme penalty is carried out. It will be very tragic and unfortunate. That is my firm conviction.”, Thiagarajan says adding that punishing an innocent soul would be an injustice.
“In very good conscience, I thought it was my duty to get in touch with Arivu and his advocates and bring out the true import of the confessional statement so that if possible even at this last minute we can try and save a precious human life.”, Thiagarajan concludes his testimony.
The confessional statement on record reads like this “moreover I bought two nine volt battery cells (Golden Power) and gave them to Sivarasan. He used only these to make the bomb explode.”
The Supreme Court had upheld the confessional statement in the case finding it “believable.”
In an interview to Times of India in light of the documentary’s release, Thiagarajan said “As an investigator, it put me in a dilemma. It wouldn’t have qualified as a confession statement without his admission of being part of the conspiracy. There I omitted a part of his statement and added my interpretation. I regret it”.
Later in a sworn affidavit dated 27 October 2017 submitted to the Supreme Court, Thiagarajan stated that he had omitted to record Perarivalan’s statement where the latter said he did not know the purpose for which the battery was being procured.
But here is an interesting tidbit about Thiagarajan that will raise concerns about his sudden realization on Perarivalan’s confessional statement.
Remember the Sister Abhaya murder case? Abhaya was found dead in a well at the St Pius X Convent in Kottayam, Kerala on March 27, 1992. Twenty eight years later, on 22 December 2020, the special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram found the two accused – Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy – guilty of murdering Sister Abhaya.
Thiagarajan, who was the SP of CBI’s Kochi unit back then, reportedly pressured his subordinate officer Varghese P Thomas who was investigating the case, to conclude it as a case of suicide based on the preliminary findings of the crime branch. The crime branch had recorded that Abhaya had committed suicide as she got only 7 marks out of 100 in her first year pre-degree examination. But it was later established that Sister Abhaya was murdered in cold-blood when she found out Father Thomas Kottu and Sister Sephy in a compromising position.
Owing to the continued harassment, Thomas took voluntary retirement despite having 10 more years in service. He alleged that Thiagarajan wanted to make it appear as a suicide to protect the interests of some political leaders.
It is this Thiagarajan who has been accused of manipulating investigations for people in power, had altered the course of Perarivalan’s case which has now resulted in the convicted terrorist being set free.
So, the following questions arise:
1) What made Thiagarajan realize that he erred after so many years?
2) Even if Thiagarajan is right and Perarivalan is the humane saint that he is portrayed to be in the documentary, shouldn’t Arputhammal, politicians, and other activists hold Thiagarajan accountable for negligence and dereliction of duty?
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.