Convict acquitted in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case dies in Chennai

Santhan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, succumbed to his illness at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai this morning. Aged around 55, he was suffering from cryptogenic cirrhosis, a liver disease. 

He was admitted to the hospital in January due to liver failure and experienced a cardiac arrest early Wednesday. Though initially revived, he could not survive and passed away at 7:30 am. Santhan was one of the seven life convicts in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. After spending more than 32 years in jail, he was released in November 2022. Post-release, the convicts, being Sri Lankan nationals without passports or travel documents, were housed in a special camp on the Trichy central jail campus.

Unlike his fellow convicts who sought asylum abroad, Santhan had approached the Madras High Court seeking help to travel back to Sri Lanka to meet his aging mother.

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