Sri Lankan national Robert Payas, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has urged the Tamil Nadu Prison Department, to grant permission to address a press meet.

Payas, who has been in prison for about 28 years, has made the request in a letter addressed to the Additional Director General of Police (Prisons). In his letter, he has pleaded that he was denied justice and that his request to address a press conference should be considered on humanitarian grounds.

He said : “I came to India with my pregnant wife for the safe delivery of our child in 1990, when Sri Lanka was witnessing an ethnic conflict. The assassination of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 shattered our lives. I lost my father while I was in prison, and my mother was suffering from various ailments. My wife and son are living far away from me.”