The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday, December 23, granted one-month parole to Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. The parole came after repeated requests from her ailing mother Padma.
State Special Public Prosecutor, Hassan Mohammed Jinnah informed the Madras High Court on Thursday, 23 December, that the state government has granted one month ordinary parole to Nalini who was lodged in Vellore Special Prison for Women.
His response came as Padma's petition for parole of her daughter came up before a bench of Justices PN Prakash and R Hemalatha. Recording the submission of the Special Public Prosecutor, the division bench closed the petition of Padma, according to her lawyer, M Radhakrishnan.
Nalini will be staying at a rented accommodation at Sathuvachari in Vellore under tight police security with her mother Padma, her sister Kalyani and her brother Backianathan just like she did while she got parole in 2019.
The Tamil Nadu cabinet had in 2018 recommended the release of Nalini and her fellow convicts but the Governor did not clear the file. She and other convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have filed a petition in Madras High Court to release them without the consent of the Governor and it is also pending before the court.
Nalini, along with her husband Sriharan, who is a Sri Lankan national, has been under imprisonment three weeks after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991, at Sriperumbudur.
Meanwhile, in another development, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has announced constituting a committee under a retired High Court judge to recommend to the state, the premature release of certain categories of life convicts, the government said on Thursday.
The panel, comprising among others Mental Health expert, Medical Education Director, advocate with expertise in criminal procedure code and one from the Prisons department, will be headed by retired judge of the Madras High Court, Justice N Authinathan, an official release said.
The six-member committee will recommend to the government, the premature release of life convicts, including elderly, differently abled and those with certain mental and health issues who had completed 10 years and 20 years of incarceration, it said. Humanitarian consideration, various Supreme Court verdicts and existing laws and regulations will be the recommendation criteria, it said.
(With IANS and PTI inputs.)
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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