Nalini moves to High Court for early release

NALINI SRIHARAN, one of the convicts in Rajive Gandhi assassination case, has moved to Madras High Court for early release.

She was convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plot and awarded death sentence, later commuted to life term on the intervention of UPA chief Sonia Gandhi, who is Rajiv’s widow. Her husband, Murugan, has also been awarded death sentence in this case, though his clemency petition is pending before the President.

The decision to move High Court for an early release has come after a month of her meeting with Rajiv’s daughter, Priyanka Gandhi. While Nalini had described the meeting as extremely pleasant, Priyanka had termed it as a move to come to peace with violence and turmoil, which she had witnessed in her life.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has questioned the commitment of UPA government regarding Rajiv Gandhi assassination, which has again come into the focus after his daughter Priyanka Vadra visited one of the assassin Nalini, who is presently serving a life term.

BJP chief, Rajnath Singh, hauled the UPA government over the progress made by Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) to unearth the conspiracy angle to the murder of late Rajiv.

Referring to the assassination of Rajiv, BJP chief, Singh said that most inquiries in the case had pointed to some unseen hand in the heinous crime, but the present government had failed to bring criminals to justice.

He said that the NDA government had constituted a Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency to unearth the conspiracy angle to the murder. The MDMA had sent letters rogatory to 27 countries to pursue the case when the NDA was in power.

Terming it as the failure of the UPA, Singh said that despite being in power for the last four years, the government had spoken not a single word on the developments of MDMA.

“It is surprising that with Sonia in full command of the UPA government, nothing is happening about the Rajiv assassination conspiracy investigation. I demand that the UPA come out with what is progress in the investigation,” he added.