The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to set aside the criminal proceedings pending against Murugan, one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, before a lower court in Vellore in Tamil Nadu.

Justice N Sathish Kumar, who rejected the plea, directed the Vellore court to dispose of the case expeditiously.

The judge was disposing of a criminal original petition from Murugan.

The charge against Murugan was that he protested against and abused the prison authorities when they inspected his cell in 2020. A case was registered against him and the same was pending before a lower court in Vellore.

Murugan preferred the petition to quash the proceedings on the ground that no FIR had been filed and there was no progress in the case. However, the government advocate told the judge the FIR was registered.

The judge recorded this and disposed of the petition after directing the Vellore court to complete the trial as quickly as possible.

Murugan is one among the seven persons convicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur near here in May 1991. The others are Santhan, A G Perarivalan, Robert Payas, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Nalini.

Perarivalan was released by the Supreme Court in May this year, invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.