Arputhammal, mother of Rajiv-accused Perarivalan, has expressed her confidence that Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who is also a mother of two children, would understand her plight and offer help in the release of her son from prison.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a ‘human bomb’ during an election meeting at Sriperumbudur off Chennai in 1991. Santhan, Murugan, Nalini, Perarivalan, Robert Paes, Jayakumar and Ravichandran were listed as the seven main accused in the case and were awarded death sentence which was reduced in phases to life sentence.

They have been toiling in prison for the past 26 years with the Centre and the State Governments keeping mum on the subject of their release. Perarivalan was out on bail for 2 months to take care of and attend to his ailing father Kuyildasan after which he was again put in prison a few weeks back.

Arputhammal, who had met former chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa and incumbent chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami to secure the release of her son from prison, has appealed to Congress president Rahul Gandhi not to press for her son’s continued stay in prison. Speaking to newsmen in Chennai, she said that she was confident that as a mother, Sonia Ji would understand my feelings and help me out in this regard.