Nalini Sriharan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, will be filing a rejoinder petition in the Madras High Court after the State government opposed her writ petition seeking parole. She has sought the Madras High Court to direct the State government to grant her ordinary leave for six months for making arrangements for her daughter’s marriage.
In the petition, she said the government in February 2014 decided to release her from prison. As the decision was stayed by the Supreme Court, she has not yet been released from the prison though she was eligible to be released under various schemes of premature release of life convicts framed by the Tamil Nadu government.
When the State government had taken a decision to release her from prison long ago, the reasons for denying parole were “unsustainable in law”. She sought a minimum six months by way of parole or ordinary leave to make organise the marriage of her daughter, who lives in the United Kingdom.
‘Suffering for too long’
Stating that the government’s statement in the counter affidavit that she might escape from lawful custody in the event of granting parole was not correct, she said the government had ignored the fact that she was a citizen of the country and was suffering long imprisonment despite the fact that she had become eligible to be released more than a decade ago.
She said that a co-life convict, A.G. Perarivalan was granted parole for two months. She sought the High Court to direct the government to grant her ordinary leave for six months.
