What Rajiv Gandhi convict Nalini said on meeting Priyanka Gandhi in jail
Rajiv Gandhi assassination case: Nalini Sriharan – reported to be the longest-serving woman prisoner in the country – was released from Vellore Jail in Tamil Nadu on Saturday evening following the top court's order, along with other convicts.
Nalini Sriharan, one of the six convicts freed this week by the Supreme Court in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, on Sunday revealed that Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had visited her in jail and asked her about the killing of her father - former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Nalini – reported to be the longest-serving woman prisoner in the country – was released from Vellore Jail in Tamil Nadu on Saturday evening following the top court's order, along with other convicts in the case. She had behind bars for over three decades.
Nalini, who addressed a presser, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI: “Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met me in jail and she asked me about her father's killing. She got emotional for her father. She cried too.” The 53-year-old also noted how Priyanka Gandhi got emotional and cried when she met her in jail.
Sriharan also urged the Tamil Nadu government to fast-track the release of her husband from the Trichy special camp. “On Monday I am going to meet my husband at Trichy Special camp. We got married and we have a child who lives abroad. My daughter is so excited to meet her father. I really want to go and see a few places in Tamil Nadu mainly the late Kamala Sir Memorial,” she said at the press conference.
Nalini recounted her experience in jail, during which she even gave birth. “We have been treated in jail like death convicts. Even when I was two months pregnant, they locked me inside the prison,” she said.
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Meanwhile, she thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, the Gandhi family and all others who helped her get out of the case. “I am ready to meet them if I get a chance to meet them,” she said.
The other convicts who served a life sentence in the case include Jaykumar, RP Ravichandran, Robert Pias, Suthendraraja alias Santhan, and V Sriharan alias Murugan.
Passing a brief order, the Supreme Court bench on Friday said, “We find that factors which weighed with this Court while directing release of Perarivalan are equally applicable to all present applicants.”
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, by a woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group – identified as Dhanu – during a public rally. The killing was largely seen as a response to his move to send Indian forces to Sri Lanka in 1987 to disarm Tamil rebels.
(With inputs from ANI)
