Robert Pias is a Sri Lankan Tamil who is one of the seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Pias is accused of providing shelter to the LTTE assassins. He is being held in the Puzhal Central Jail in Tamil Nadu.
Wiki/Biography
Robert Payas or Robert Pious was born in Kokuvel, Jaffna, Sri Lanka in 1980 (50 years old in 2020). On September 20, 1990, 20-year-old Robert came to India along with his wife and several other relatives and registered as refugees in Rameswaram. A few days later, they moved to Madras and started living there.
Family and Race
Robert Payas was born in Sri Lanka into a Tamil family.
Parents and siblings
His father’s name was Balasundaram.
wife and children
Robert Payas married R. Prema at a very young age. They have a son, Thamilko, who was born on February 6, 1991 in a private hospital in Chetpet, Madras.
Role in the assassination
Robert Payas, a suspected Tamil Tiger commando who was sent to India by the Tamil Tigers to set up a base for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres, rented two houses in Madras (now Chennai) where the conspirators lived and made their plans.
Trial and Verdict
Robert Payas was on the run for a few days after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991. On June 10, 1991, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested Robert Payas in connection with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The CBI investigated the matter and submitted a report. During his trial before the TADA (Prevention) Act designated court in Chennai, it was concluded based on his confession and other evidence that Robert Payas was familiar with the conspiracy to murder Rajiv Gandhi. The court convicted him under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 and a host of Indian penal code sections. On January 28, 1998, the trial court sentenced Robert Payas and 25 others to death. This decision angered many legal experts and human rights activists in India. Human rights activists protested the court’s verdict and claimed that the trial was not transparent as it was conducted in a closed courtroom and the identities of the witnesses were not disclosed to the public. As a result, the Supreme Court decided to consider the appeal to reopen the case. On May 11, 1999, the Supreme Court acquitted Robert Payas of all charges of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act (TADA) of 1987 and commuted Robert Payas’ death sentence to life imprisonment.
Facts/Trivia
- Robert’s wife R. Prema is the sister of Jayakumar, another convict sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
- Robert Payas claimed during the trial that his one-and-a-half-year-old son was killed in action by the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) before he came to India in 1990.
- In 2014, the Tamil Nadu government under Jayalalithaa sought to release seven convicts sentenced to life in prison in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The central government appealed to the Supreme Court against the state’s decision. In 2016, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court declared that the Tamil Nadu government had no power to release convicts sentenced under federal law and in cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation, also a central agency.
- In 2017, the year he was serving his 26th year in prison, Peralivaran wrote to Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, asking for euthanasia. He wrote:
I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in living if there is no room for liberation. Therefore, I beg you to ‘euthanize’ me and hand over my body to my family.”
- In November 2019, the Madras High Court granted Robert Payas 30-day parole for arranging his son’s wedding. This was the first time he had walked out of jail since he was imprisoned in 1991.
Robert Payas was released on parole after serving 28 years in prison
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education