A lone woman awaits visitors in a stall at the ‘Chennai Book Fair’, where hundreds of publishers have showcased their bestsellers.
The objective of the sexagenarian is more to fight for the cause than sell books. Arputhammal, mother of A.G. Perarivalan (convict on death row in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case), seeks to create awareness of abolishing death penalty. The 12-day fair is on at the YMCA Grounds in Nandanam here.
Besides books written against capital punishment by legal luminaries like former Supreme Court Judges V.R. Krishna Iyer and P.N. Bhagwati and others, DVDs of the documentary produced by the ‘Peoples Movement Against Death Penalty’ is on sale.
“Many visitors seem to recognise me as Perarivalan’s mother...Some women were in tears after I explained my struggle to save the life of my son who has spent more than 22 years in prison,” Ms. Arputhammal said.
“I have paid Rs. 25,000 to get this small space. This is also to raise funds to save my son from the gallows. My husband is a retired teacher and gets a meagre Rs. 7,000 as pension…”
