Who is Nalini Sriharan, the sole woman convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, freed by Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court on Friday (11 November) freed Nalini Sriharan and five other convicts serving life sentences in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Besides Nalini, the apex court has directed the premature release of RP Ravichandran, Santhan, Murugan aka Sriharan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar. The two-judge bench, comprising Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, considered the case of AG Perarivalan, another convict who was released in May while ordering the release. Exercising its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court had on 18 May ordered the release of Perarivalan, who had served over 30 years in jail. The bench also noted that the convicts have been behind bars for over three decades and that their conduct in the prison was “satisfactory”, as per LiveLaw. Nalini had moved the apex court seeking early release from prison after the Madras High Court had rejected her plea. How was Rajiv Gandhi killed? Who is Nalini Sriharan? What has Congress said about the early release? Let’s take a closer look. Rajiv Gandhi killed On 21 May 1991, the former Prime Minister was assassinated by a female suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when he was in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur to attend an election rally. [caption id=“attachment_11612431” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed by an LTTE suicide bomber in 1991. PTI File Photo[/caption] Identified as Dhanu, the bomber had approached Gandhi during the rally. She bowed as if to touch his feet and then detonated the explosive-laden vest she was wearing inside her loose-fitting bright orange salwar-kameez, notes The Hindu. Nearly 16 others including freelance photographer Hari Babu were killed in the blast. The pictures he had clicked then had assisted the police in pursuing several leads. Previous rulings in the case Initially, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) trial court had sentenced 26 people to death in the assassination case of Rajiv Gandhi. In 1999, after TADA lapsed, the top court upheld the conviction of only seven people, releasing the others. The apex court announced death sentences for four and life imprisonment for the other three. In 2000, on the intervention of Sonia Gandhi (Rajiv Gandhi’s wife and former Congress president), Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to life. In 2014, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of three others, including Perarivalan, to life. In 2018, the Tamil Nadu government had recommended to the Governor that the convicts be released. Who is Nalini Sriharan? Nalini Sriharan, who is now in her mid-fifties, is a graduate in English language and Literature from Ethiraj College. Her mother, Padmavathi, was a nurse in a Chennai hospital and her father – P Sankara Narayanan – was a police officer. Known as the longest-serving woman prisoner in India, Nalini was two months pregnant when arrested for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. She had married LTTE operative Sriharan, another convict, on 21 April 1991, and both have been behind bars since their arrest that year following the May assassination.

Among the seven convicts, she was the only one present at the assassination site in 1991.

Nalini and her husband left Chennai after the killing and hid out at several places for over a month before their arrest. Their daughter was born and raised in prison till age five, notes Indian Express. [caption id=“attachment_11612461” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Nalini Sriharan is the longest-serving woman prisoner in India. AFP File Photo[/caption] She had hosted two women, who were brought from Sri Lanka for the attack. They had stayed with her and her husband while the plan was charted out. Nalini was also accused of helping the two women bombers in buying the clothes they wore on the day of the killing. Moreover, she had accompanied the women and prime accused Sivarasan to attend the rally of former Prime Minister VP Singh in Chennai to ascertain the security arrangements during such events. In 1999, the top court had said in its verdict that Nalini was an “obedient participant” with no key evidence that proves she was part of the conspiracy. “… She wouldn’t have dared to retreat from the scene as she was tucked into the tentacles of the conspiracy octopus from where it was impossible for a woman like Nalini to get herself extricated,” the court had said as per Indian Express. In 2008, Times of India had reported that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had held a 90-minute meeting with her in March of that year in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore jail. Nalini released a 500-page autobiography in Tamil in 2016 where she discussed her childhood, marriage, arrest, conviction and life imprisonment, notes The Print. Calling herself a “prisoner of circumstances”, Nalini mentions in the book that she told Vadra that neither she nor her husband was aware of the assassination plan, reports Times of India. In November 2019, Nalini had sought mercy killing in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madras High Court chief justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and the Tamil Nadu home secretary’s office. Her lawyer, Pugazhendhi Pandian, had said at the time Nalini had alleged she was being ill-treated by prison officials, as per ThePrint.  Speaking to the media after the apex court order today, Nalini said that she knows “she is not a terrorist”. “I was suffering in jail for so many years. The last 32 hours were a struggle for me. I thank all those who supported me. I thank people of Tamil Nadu and all lawyers for having faith," she told News18. ALSO READ: Rajiv Gandhi murder: Who are the 7 convicts the TN govt wants to free? Congress responds Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling today, the Congress said it was “unfortunate” and “unacceptable”. Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP and general secretary in charge of communications, tweeted: “The decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is totally unacceptable and completely erroneous. The Congress party criticises it clearly and finds it wholly untenable.”

My statement on the decision of the Supreme Court to free the remaining killers of former PM Shri. Rajiv Gandhi pic.twitter.com/ErwqnDGZLc

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 11, 2022

“It is most unfortunate that the Supreme Court has not acted in consonance with the spirit of India on this issue,” he added. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.