“The SUPREME Court has lastly ordered my son’s launch. So I’m standing right here to thank everybody. All of you recognize our struggle for the previous 31 years. I haven’t got to inform you about him. You all revered my struggle.”
Surrounded by cameras, the exhausted 75-year-old held on to her son’s arms at Jolarpettai in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupattur. Arputham Ammal’s lengthy and gruelling struggle for her son AG Perarivalan, one of many convicts within the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was lastly over.
Perarivalan advised The Indian Express: “The only grip I had, to cling on, during the years of long struggle for my life and justice was my mother.” He additionally thanked “each and every individual who fought a desperate battle against the mighty system, standing shoulder to shoulder with me”.
“I can not discover a phrase in any language to specific the gratitude I want to convey. Standing for a really abnormal particular person with no background wants an immense sense of righteousness. Spending time and power for an individual whom they did not even meet, speaks volumes about their love and care,” he stated.
“I want to attain out to each single one that joined the varied levels of battle and maintain their palms to convey my gratitude and thankfulness. I can by no means compensate for that, ever. Nevertheless, ‘Thanks’ is the one single phrase I can specific for now with profuse tears of happiness, love and reverence,” he stated.
On January 28, 1998, after a chronic trial, the TADA courtroom sentenced 26 accused within the case to loss of life, together with Perarivalan. On May 11, 1999, the Supreme Court upheld the loss of life sentence of 4, together with Perarivalan.
In August 2011, the Madras High Court stayed the execution order. It was across the similar time that Ammal began constructing a nationwide motion towards the loss of life penalty, visiting prisons throughout the nation with a badge pinned on her sari with the message: “Marana Thandanai Ozhipom” (abolish capital punishment).
Hailing from a household sure to the beliefs of Periyar and the Dravidian motion, Ammal met her son in jail at any time when she might. “But during our meetings, he used to give me courage, not the other way,” stated Ammal.
While her 86-year-old husband, Kuyil Dasan aka Gnanasekaran, a Tamil poet and retired reacher, stayed with one in all her two daughters, Ammal shuttled between Chennai and Jolarpettai, between Vellore and Puzhal central prisons the place she was lodged.
“He was all the time my favourite. We used to sing collectively,” she stated, recalling the times earlier than his arrest within the case.
When Perarivalan was first granted parole in 2017, Ammal’s “young friends”, together with a number of filmmakers, introduced a keyboard for the mom and son to sing collectively. The first tune Perarivalan sang was “Ponnu Pola Aatha”, a few “mother as pure as gold” getting “only sorrow in return”.
According to Ammal, two of probably the most traumatic days in her life over the previous three a long time have been when the President rejected her son’s mercy plea in 2011, and the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was convicted for the Parliament assault.
While the mercy plea rejection made her go to Perarivalan in Vellore jail for what she thought was “one last time”, information of a letter despatched by pace put up informing Guru’s spouse about his hanging terrified her. “I dread the morning news flashes or seeing the postman on the street,” she had stated in 2013.
For Ammal, carrying a bundle of books to jail was a spotlight of her visits to see her son.
“International historical past, poems and novels, he used to learn every little thing. We by no means gave him any luxurious in life. Following Periyar’s ideology, we lived a easy life. Entire his college days, he was the very best scholar and handed his larger secondary examination with distinction. Everyone favored him. Even the retired jail officers had nice regard for him. I hope I can dwell with him earlier than I die,” she had advised The Indian Express earlier.
On Wednesday, Ammal stated her life had began trying up after “he got parole from the government and the Supreme Court granted him bail (in March)”. “I was finally able to take care of his health,” she stated.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
