30-day parole to Rajiv’s killer

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday granted a 30-day parole to Robert Payas, one of the seven convicts serving a life term for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. A division bench of justices MM Sundresh and RMT Teekaa Raaman gave the order on a plea by Payas seeking parole for making arrangements for his son Tamilko’s marriage. His parole will be from November 25 till December 24. The bench also recorded an undertaking given in the form of an affidavit by a man named Chandrasekaran to provide facility of stay in his house located in the jurisdiction of Neelankarai police station in the city. In his plea in September, Payas 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 said, he had not utilised the emergency or ordinary leave provided to him under Tamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules, 1982 despite his good conduct in prison. 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 parole of 30 days. (PTI)