Rajiv Gandhi case convict Santhan, dies at Chennai hospital

T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, one of the convicts released in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, passed away on Saturday at a government hospital in Chennai. He was 56.

Hospital officials said Santhan suffered a cardiac arrest and died while undergoing treatment for a liver condition.

Last week, authorities had granted an emergency travel document enabling Santhan's deportation to his native Sri Lanka. But he was admitted to the hospital in early February before the scheduled deportation.

Santhan was among the seven convicted for the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu. In 1999, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment.

He was released by the Supreme Court in November 2022 along with another convict, Perarivalan. According to CBI, Santhan was an LTTE intelligence operative who conspired with the mastermind Sivarasan.

Perarivalan called him a man who "lived in his own world". Santhan's lawyer said his body will now be taken to Sri Lanka for last rites.

The Rajiv Gandhi assassination case has been one of India's most high-profile and controversial criminal cases. The latest development marks the end of judicial procedures for one of the last remaining convicts, nearly 31 years after the assassination stunned the nation.