Santhan, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi convicted man, had a cardiac arrest. A diagnosis of cryptogenic cirrhosis was made for him. According to a hospital official, T Suthendraraja, also known as Santhan, one of the freed prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, died at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai. Last week, 56-year-old Santhan received an emergency travel document from the Union Ministry of External Affairs’ Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), allowing for his swift return to Sri Lanka.
The News Minute stated that Santhan experienced a cardiac arrest. He was identified as having cryptogenic cirrhosis, a liver-related ailment unrelated to alcohol consumption.
According to Pugazhendhi, Santhan’s legal advocate, his brother was present at the medical facility when he passed away, as he stated to The News Minute. For last rites, his body will be brought to his Sri Lankan home. Plans are being developed. It was planned for officials to accompany Santhan, who was being held in a special stay at the Trichy central prison, to the international airport so he could be deported. The Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission had already supplied Santhan with a temporary travel document at his request, and the FRRO had subsequently approved an exit permit for his departure.
Two days following the FRRO request on February 23, Santhan was scheduled to be deported. But according to The News Minute, he was taken to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General hospital at the beginning of February.
In May 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of Muruan, Santhan, Perarivalan, and Nalini and commuted the sentences of Payas, Ravichandran, and Jayakumar to life in prison. Meanwhile, 19 of the 26 accused who had been detained in connection with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi were found not guilty. In the weeks and months that followed Rajiv Gandhi’s murder at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, by a suicide bomber connected to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), all seven people were captured.
In November 2022, the Supreme Court ordered Santhan’s release.
Santhan landed in Tamil Nadu in April 1991, as per the CBI. Identified as a part of the LTTE’s intelligence wing, Sivarasan, the group’s mastermind, recommended that he continue his education in Madras (Chennai) in February 1988. Later, in February 1990, Santhan was accepted to the Madras Institute of Engineering Technology, with LTTE funding for his studies. Santhan was charged due to his close relationship with Sivarasan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plot. Santhan was described by Perarivalan, who spent almost three decades in prison with him, as someone who exists in his own universe.
Perarivalan claimed, as quoted by Indian Express, that he never talked to anyone. He was an intensely devout man who would spend nearly the whole day in the jail temple performing puja and rituals. I believe he broke off all contact with his family and never answered letters from relatives in Sri Lanka.
