T Suthenthiraraja alias Santhan, 55, was one of the seven convicts who was released in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He died on Wednesday at 7 50 am at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai, due to cardiac arrest. Santhan had been suffering various ailments and undergoing treatment for non-alcoholic liver disease.
Santhan had been hospitalized for over a month and according to his lawyer Pugazhendhi, his brother was with him when he died. He will now be taken to his house in Sri Lanka for the last rites. The released convict had apparently wanted to go back home to Sri Lanka so he could take care of his elderly mother.
It was on January 28 that Santhan was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital from Tiruchirapalli where he was undergoing treatment for cryptogenic cirrhosis. “He suffered a setback in his condition on Tuesday night and early today he passed away after a cardiac arrest,” RGGGH dean Dr E Theranirajan told PTI.
Convict AG Perarivalan was released by the Supreme Court in May 2022, while five others including Santhan were released in November 2022. They had spent more than 30 years in prison post their conviction in the case of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.