Time ticking away on death row,a hopeful family campaigns on

His mother Arputham Ammal,now 65,was in Delhi last week for the release of a Hindi translation of Perarivalan’s 104-page booklet,An Appeal from Death Row,written as a letter to the President. And his elderly father T Gnanasekaran,also known as Kuildasan,largely confined to his home in Jolarpet,200 km from Chennai,banks on her to carry on the campaign.

On Tuesday,after the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution urging the President to reconsider the rejected mercy pleas of Perarivalan and two others,Arputham said,“Amma (Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa) has passed a resolution and has given me joy. She has given me hope of bringing back my son.” The other two on death row are Sri Lankan Tamils.

Days earlier,Kuildasan had said,“A mother carries her child in her womb for 10 months,but Arputham has been carrying our son for 20 years,even now when everything is going against us. From her I learnt what motherhood is.”

The charge against Perarivalan is that he bought and supplied the two 9-volt batteries that set off the belt bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in Sriperumbudur on May 21,1991.

“Nalini (Accused No. 1 whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment) was on the spot in Sriperumbudur,” Arputham said during her Delhi trip. “My son is only Accused No. 18 and he is hanging. Does the law differentiate between a man and a woman?”

The Hindi translation of the booklet was released by CPI general secretary A B Bardhan,part of a campaign by MDMK leader Vaiko and organisations such as the People’s Movement Against Death Penalty against the death penalty.

Perarivalan has a diploma in electronics and communications engineering. In the book,he says,“My education,which was helpful for my being portrayed as a ‘bomb expert’ in the beginning,later came in handy for the allegation that I had bought a 9-volt battery cell which is easily available in petty shops and is used in day-to-day life…”

In a pamphlet distributed by the People’s Movement Against Death Penalty,Perarivalan takes that argument further. “They have not established anywhere that the 9V cell used in the bomb was the same one that I bought. But the fact remains that I never bought that 9V cell and I never gave that to anybody.”

Arputham said the book had been in the making a long time,with mother and son having taken great care to make sure they hadn’t got anything wrong. “He would give me the original manuscript (at the Vellore central prison,where Perarivalan is currently lodged). I would get it typed and take it back to him. He would correct it and I would get it retyped. The Hindi translation took six months,” said Arputham,who doesn’t know the language and had to take help.

The separation

The arrest came during a period when empathy with Sri Lankan Tamils and their political cause was common,the family says. Arputham said there was nothing more than empathy — their family “only lived in the traditions of Periyar”. And Kuildasan said,“This sympathy was not anti-national. On the contrary,Arivu was a good NCC cadet and had won the best cadet prize. He wanted to be in the Army,” says the father who himself was in charge of the NCC unit at school.

A teacher at a government school,Kuildasan was an ardent supporter of “Periyar” E V Ramasamy’s teachings which convinced him to shift his allegiance from the Indian National Congress to join the Tamil nationalistic organisation Dravidar Kazhagam. It was this pride in Tamil culture that prompted him to name his son Perarivalan after a couplet from the ancient Tamil treatise,Thirukkural.

Perarivalan,who had completed his diploma from a government polytechnic college in 1990,had been in Chennai for about six months. He had just landed a job at a printing press in Chennai owned by Bhagyanathan,whose sister is Nalini,and stayed at the office of Viduthalai,a daily owned by the Dravidar Kazhagam.

On June 10,1991,the CBI’s special investigation team arrived at midnight at their home. “They said they were looking for anyone supporting the Eelam cause. I said Arivu was not home and that he was in Chennai. My husband and I offered to bring him. They wrote us an address that said ‘Malligai’ (the SIT headquarters in Chennai). My husband told me,‘You go to Chennai,take him along to their office and bring him back with you. Enough of his studies’,” the mother said.

So Arputham travelled to Chennai. “I reached Chennai and my plan was to take Arivu to the police the next morning. Both of us went out to see the city. When we came back to Periyar Thidal (headquarters of Dravidar Kazhagam,where they were staying),we saw the CBI men along with my husband. The officers had gone to our house in Jolarpet again and my husband had decided to come to Chennai along with them. They took our son and told us to bring him back the next day. We went,but they didn’t send him,” she said.

Perarivalan was kept at the SIT headquarters for 60 days; his confessional statement was recorded on the 59th and a TADA case was registered against him. “No one was willing to take up his case. Finally,a lawyer,who happened to be a member of the Dravida Kazhagam,agreed. He told us Arivu would be produced in the High Court,” recollected Arputham.

That day,Arputham and about 200 people from her village reached the court. She saw him being taken straight from the police vehicle to the court and back almost immediately. “We were all shouting,‘Arivu,Arivu!’ But they did not stop and rushed him away,” she said.

The meetings

The mother recounted his days in jail from then on,and the laboured conversations they had. “They put him in Chengalpet jail after the 60th day. His hands would be chained 22 hours a day. He was only an undertrial then,but they made him wear the white uniform of convicts.” The uniform was changed after a petition in court.

“In this Chengalpet jail,they would bring him in and make him stand by the window in the superintendent’s office. I would be outside and the window was much higher. I had to crane my neck to see him,” Arputham said,demonstrating the action. “There would a policeman on his side,another near me. I was allowed to pass on bread and bananas.”

“At Salem jail,there was a wire mesh between us that kept him about a foot-and-a-half away. We had to shout to each other to be heard. At the Poonamallee special jail (the sub-jail where the trial was held on the jail complex),there was a fibre glass separation. We had to speak over the phone and there were times the phone wouldn’t work. After we complained about it,they made a tiny opening in the door. Even the lawyer had to speak through that. Now (in Vellore),they let us sit opposite each other and talk,” she said.

She is still proud of Perarivalan: “You should go and ask the jail authorities about his conduct. They have nothing but good things to say about him. He should come out. The jail is not a place where people go to die. Jails are built so that people can come out better men.”

The father

Hundreds of newspapers and periodicals are filed and stacked on the loft inside the small house in Jolarpet. Books spill out of cupboards and tables and are piled up on the bed and on chairs. In the midst of all this sits the tall Kuildasan,eager to talk about his son but unsure where to begin.

There aren’t many photographs of Arivu in the house. One from his childhood shows a smiling Arivu posing with his two sisters,Anpumani and Tamizhselvi. Then there are pictures of Arivu in handcuffs,published in newspapers 20 years ago. Since then,the family is rarely under the same roof,with the mother is running around the country seeking support for her son. Kuildasan is taken care of by two elderly sisters,neighbours and youngsters who get him food,cigarettes and medicines,and help him organise public meetings.

The newspapers on the loft in their house have been collected over the past two decades. These are periodicals which Arivu subscribed to from prison. Every time a family member visits him,a stack of old papers and magazines would be sent home where they are filed and saved carefully. These files came in handy when Arivu was writing his book.

Case Diary

January 1998: Trial court in Chennai awards death penalty to all 26 accused

May 1999: Supreme Court upholds death sentence on four,acquits 19 and releases three

2-1: The Supreme Court verdict is a split one; Justices D P Wadhwa and Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri confirm death penalty for four,while Justice K T Thomas confirms it for three of them and says the fourth,Nalini,should be sentenced to life

What justice Wadhwa’s judgment said about Perarivalan alias Arivu

“Arivu went to Sri Lanka… and while there he learnt about the atrocities committed by IPKF. He developed great hatred towards Rajiv Gandhi,whom he held responsible for sending IPKF to Sri Lanka.”

“In April 1991,Arivu attended election meeting addressed by Rajiv Gandhi and Jayalalithaa at Marina Beach,Madras. In May,Arivu attended the public meeting of V P Singh at Nandanam,Madras,where [suicide bomber Dhanu was present… Attending the meeting was a dry run for some future engagements/acts.”

“In May,Arivu purchased two 9-volt Golden Power batteries… used in the belt bomb by Dhanu.”

“A meeting was organised on May 20 [day before assassination… Arivu gave a Kodak colour film roll to Haribabu [who used it to take photographs at the scene of the crime.”

“Arivu on May 22 removed his things from the house of [accused Padma,like TV,VCR,etc,which were subsequently recovered and seized. On the night of May 21,Arivu had gone to a movie.”

“Sivarasan [on May 23 sent Arivu to the studio of Suba Sundaram to check whether arrangements had been made for getting the body of Haribabu.”

“The conduct of Arivu before and after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi leaves no one in doubt that he was a member of the conspiracy. It is not necessary for a conspirator to be present at the scene of the crime to be a member of the conspiracy. Mr Natarajan [defence counsel said that Arivu was merely an errand boy and was following the instructions of Sivarasan and he himself had no active role to play… Circumstances rather show that Arivu was in the thick of the conspiracy. He knew that to explode the IED,the power source would be a 9-volt battery and that is why he purchased a battery of that power,which was ultimately used in exploding the device killing Rajiv Gandhi and others.”

“We confirm the award of sentence of death on them [Nalini,Santhan,Murugan and Periravalan alias Arivu.”

The others
Murugan

A Sri Lankan Tamil,he joined LTTE in 1988 and became an operative of its intelligence wing under Pottu Amman. After being in charge of training new entrants and guarding the prison in Jaffna,he was sent to India in January 1991 and met Sivarasan,the key LTTE figure named in the assassination plot. Murugan’s stay was arranged at the house of S Padma,where he met her daughter Nalini. At the time of the assassination,he was in Royapettah. Murugan grew close to Nalini during his stay at their house and later married her in Tirupathi. They tried to flee but were arrested on June 14,1991. Murugan’s conviction is for the conspiracy. While in prison,Murugan took classes in advanced internet technologies,management systems and computer graphics.

Santhan

A Sri Lankan Tamil from Sivarasan’s hometown. In February 1988,Sivarasan offered to have the LTTE arrange his studies in Chennai. In February 1990,Santhan reached India with Sivarasan and briefly attended classes at Madras Institute of Engineering Technology. He allegedly played a small role in the murder of Padmanabha,leader of a rival Tamil group,and then met LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman. In May 1991,he returned to India. He had a brief chat with Sivarasan on the day of the assassination. Around midnight,Sivarasan informed him about the blast. Arrested on July 22,1991,convicted for conspiracy.