Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven life convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, is granted a month’s ordinary parole by the Tamil Nadu government following repeated requests made by her ailing mother Padma.
State Public Prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohammed Jinnah on Thursday informed the Madras High Court the State government has granted a month’s ordinary leave for Nalini, who is currently imprisoned at the Special Prison for Women at Vellore.
When a petition filed by Padma, seeking orders to the Home Secretary to grant parole on requests made by her, came up before a division bench of justices PN Prakash and R Hemalatha, the SPP made the submission.
Subsequently, recording the submission, the bench closed the petition, said advocate M Radhakrishnan who appeared for Padma.
The petitioner stated that she wanted to have Nalini by her side since she was ailing.
Nalini will stay at a house at Sathuvachari in Vellore, as she did in 2019, with her family members.
This is the second time she is getting ordinary parole.
She was given a month’s parole, initially in July 2019, but it was later extended by twenty days after the intervention of the Madras High Court.
She spent her time with her mother Padma, sister Kalyani and brother Bakianathan at a rented house located at Sathuvachari in Vellore amid tight security.
During her long stint behind the bars, Nalini was given brief paroles for emergencies but it was in 2019 that she got 51 days of ordinary leave.
Imprisoned since she was held along with her husband Sriharan, a Sri Lankan national, about three weeks after the brutal massacre of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur during a poll campaign, she has been waging a long legal battle to walk out of prison through premature release. But nothing has gone in her way.
Nalini and her fellow convicts hoped to get out of the prison when Tamil Nadu Cabinet recommended the Governor to order for their release in 2018. However, the hopes faded away as the Governor sat on the files. She had filed petitions before the High Court seeking premature release without consent of the Governor. They are still pending.
