Santhan, Convict in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, Dies at 55

CHENNAI: Santhan, one of the seven individuals convicted for life in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, succumbed to his illness on Wednesday morning at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai. He was 55 years old.

Santhan was hospitalized in January due to liver failure and was subsequently diagnosed with cryptogenic cirrhosis, a liver disease of unknown origin. According to Dr. E. Theranirajan, the dean of the hospital, Santhan’s health was critically compromised upon admission. Despite initial resuscitation, he suffered a cardiac arrest early on Wednesday and passed away at 7:30 am.

Santhan was initially handed a death sentence for his role in the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. However, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. After serving more than 32 years in prison, he was released in November 2022, along with five other convicts.

Post-release, the convicts, all of whom were Sri Lankan nationals lacking passports or travel documents, were housed in a special camp on the Trichy central jail campus. Unlike his fellow convicts who sought asylum overseas, Santhan appealed to the Madras High Court to enable his return to Sri Lanka to be with his ageing mother.