Rajiv’s assassin Nalini moves court for early release

CHENNAI - Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence for assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Monday moved the Madras High Court against a Tamil Nadu government decision to reject her appeal for early release.

The Madras High Court April 6 dismissed her appeal for premature release, basing the ruling on the state government’s decision to accept the report of prison advisory board to turn down her request.

The board, headed by the Vellore district collector, listed eight counts not to free Nalini, including her reported refusal to apologise for Gandhi’s murder in 1991.

A woman suicide bomber from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealem detonated explosives strapped to her body while pretending to touch Gandhi’s feet at a rally in Sriperambudoor.

According to investigators, Nalini was part of the team of conspirators that killed Gandhi for sending the Indian Army to Sri Lanka in 1987.

Originally, Nalini was convicted on 16 counts of murder and given death penalty.

Later, at the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the slain former prime minister’s widow, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

In September last year, Nalini filed a petition saying she was entitled for release in 2005 itself as she had completed 14 years in jail.

After her arrest, Nalini had married LTTE activist known by his nom de guerre Murugan. He is also in prison for Gandhi’s murder. They have a grown up daughter now.

In March last year, Priyanka Vadra, daughter of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, visited Nalini in the prison. Nalini also cited the meeting while asking for her release.