Rajiv Gandhi assassination case | Four convicts lodged in Tiruchi Special Camp after prison release

Heavy posse of police personnel deployed at the Special Camp at Tiruchi to mount round-the-clock vigil

Police personnel deployed at the entrance leading to the Special Camp at Tiruchi on November 13, 2022 after the four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were lodged in the Camp in the late hours November 12, 2022 | Photo Credit: M. Srinath

The four life convicts — Murugan, Santhan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar — in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were lodged in the Special Camp at Tiruchi in the late hours of Saturday, November 12, 2022, after the Supreme Court ordered their release. 

Of the six convicts released on Saturday, the four men who are Sri Lankan nationals who had entered India without passports and visas, were brought amid tight police escort from theCentral Prison at Vellore and Chennai to the Special Camp functioning near the Tiruchi Central Prison at around 11.30 p.m. and were accommodated inside. 

Police and official sources said the four have been accommodated in two separate rooms inside the sprawling camp where inmates belonging to different nationalities have been lodged. 

While Murugan and Santhan stay in one room, Robert Payas and Jayakumar have been given another room inside the camp which comes under the administrative and operational control of the Tiruchi District Collector.

Security stepped up

Security has been beefed up at the camp with over 100 police personnel including those from the Tamil Nadu Special Police Battalion having been deployed outside and inside.

A senior police officer in the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police has been posted to head the police teams deployed at the camp to mount a strict vigil round the clock, said police sources. 

The four convicts have been kept in a couple of rooms so that they do not mingle with other foreign inmates, said police and official sources.

Movement outside disallowed

The four convicts would not be allowed to venture out of the camp as was the rule with respect to other foreign inmates, they added.

District Collector M. Pradeep Kumar told The Hindu on Sunday that basic facilities had been arranged for the four Rajiv case convicts.

Since the four were lodged in the camp only on Saturday night, the revenue authorities were making arrangements for food for them as an immediate measure, he added. 

Cell phones and laptops are barred for use by any inmate inside the camp. 

Background of the camp

The Special Camp which started functioning at Tiruchi from September 2011 has at present 136 inmates including the four Rajiv case convicts.

Sri Lankan Tamils against whom different cases had been booked by various police stations in the State account for the majority of the camp inmates.

Inmates from other countries such as Bangladesh and Nigeria are also lodged in the camp. 

The inmates face cases for having allegedly indulged in different offences including murder, cheating possession of narcotic substances besides cases bookedunder the Passport Act.

Mr. Pradeep Kumar said a cash dole of ₹145 per day was being given by the State government to every inmate inside the camp to manage their daily requirements.