Jayaram Ranganath, alias Master Ranganath, who was convicted for sheltering LTTE leader Sivarasan and his associates who masterminded the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, died in Bengaluru on Thursday, Times of India said. He was 61.

After serving a jail term of nine-and-a-half years at Poonamallee sub-jail in Tamil Nadu, Ranganath was released in 1999. He had been running a realty firm near Nagasandra Circle and living in Basavanagudi, south Bengaluru.

A diabetic, Ranganath had developed kidney complications and was hospitalised recently. He was brought home on Wednesday and breathed his last on Thursday. He was arraigned as accused no 26 in the Rajiv assassination case.