After 28 yrs, Payas gets 30-day parole

The MadrasHigh Court on Thursday granted a 30-day temporary parole to Robert Payas, one of the seven convicts undergoing life term for the assassination offormer Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

A division bench of justices MM Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raaman on allowing the plea moved by Payas seeking parole to arrange for his son’s wedding, granted parole from November 25 till December 24.

However, the bench restrained Payas from interacting with media, political parties or other personalities. “The petitioner, a convict should keep good conduct and not disrupt public peace,” the bench held.

Payas in his plea had submitted that he has been in prison since August 16, 1991 and has completed actual imprisonment of more than 28 years. During this period, he had not utilised the emergency or ordinary leave provided to him underTamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules, 1982 despite his good conduct in theprison, he said.

The petitioner said he had submitted a representation to the DIG of Prisons in August, adding even after 40 days there was no progress on the request made by him which constrained him to file the present petition for a direction to the authorities to grant paroleof 30 days.

The bench directed theconvict to furnish the sureties to the compliance ofRule 25 of Prison Rules, apart from furnishing the placeof stay with requisite particulars of the jail authorities within a week from the date of receiptof the order.

After completing the legal formalities, Robert Pyas would be released from Vellore Central Prison, where he has been lodged for thelast 28 years.

On completion of the parole, he will have to surrender before the jail authorities at about 5 pm on December 24, thebench said.

It may be noted that in July, the court had granted one-month parole to Nalini, another convict in the case. She had argued her plea in person seeking parole to arrange for her daughter’s wedding. Payas and six other people -- Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, S Jayakumar andNalini -- are serving life term in connection with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a suicide bomber at an election rally in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.