TN seeks more time on Nalini’s release plea
Amid widespread expectations that Nalini Sriharan, a life convict in the assassination case of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, might this time be allowed her plea for early release, the Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday sought some more time to decide the issue.
Nalini, whose death sentence which had been commuted to life following Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s intervention on compassionate grounds as she became the mother of a girl child while in prison, has been fighting a long-drawn case for premature release, mainly on the ground that she has already completed 17 years in the Vellore special jail.
Hearing appeals on Nalini’s plea and certain other petitions, including one by Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy, the Madras High Court Bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice R K Sasidharan had called for the report of the reconstituted Vellore Prison Advisory Board that examined afresh Nalini’s plea on the basis of an earlier High Court order in September 2008.
Following Wednesday’s directive by the court, State Advocate General P S Raman on Thursday submitted a copy of the PAB’s report to the High Court bench, though what the Board has recommended in Nalini’s case is still not known.
Raman told the court that he was not aware of the PAB report’s contents and added that any recommendation by it was only advisory in nature and not binding on the government. The PAB’s report is being studied at the topmost level and the State Home Department has asked for some more details from the prison authorities, he said.
The judges made a quick reading of the report and returned it to the Advocate General who in turn promptly put it back in the cover and ensured it was dispatched back to the State Home Secretary’s office immediately. The court posted the matter for March 29.
