Nalini, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, had made calls to the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka from a cell phone recovered from her by Vellore prison officials on April 20.
Replying to C. Gnanasekaran (Congress) during the zero hour in the Assembly on Friday, Law Minister Durai Murugan said the Q Branch police on analysing the calls made from the cell phone found that eight calls were made to U.K., one to Sri Lanka, 22 calls to numbers across Tamil Nadu and five calls to Chennai, including one to her advocate. Twelve SMSes were sent and apart from four messages received, 10 missed calls and 8 incoming calls were registered.
The Minister said the cell phone was activated on March 13, 2009 and it was registered in the name of Ravi of Kanagasamudram in Katpadi taluk in Vellore district. The phone was recovered from Nalini’s cell on April 20 during a routine check by the Prison Superintendent and other officials. The Minister said the police had not received any complaint from Nalini’s counsel alleging harassment by prison officials.
Earlier, Mr. Gnanasekaran wanted to know what action the government had taken against Nalini for clandestinely possessing the cell phone. He asked whether the government had arrested her and registered cases against her. As per the prison manual, she should be deprived of the A class facility she enjoys currently in prison, he said.
