The Supreme Court verdict releasing A.G. Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, is on expected lines, former Director Central Bureau of Investigation D.R. Kaarthikeyan said.
“I respect this verdict and it is on expected lines. We have to respect the Supreme Court judgment,” Mr Kaarthikeyan, who led the Special Investigation Team that probed the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, told The Hindu on Wednesday.
However, Mr. Karthikeyan sought to dismiss claims that the convicts in the case were innocent. “We did an in-depth investigation leaving no stone unturned. The team toiled for several months collecting crucial evidence from all possible sources and finally managed to go from the crime to the criminal. Three eminent Supreme Court judges upheld the verdict after hearing the matter over three long months — perhaps the longest ever appeal heard in the apex court. It is not that any of them were innocent,” he said.
