Assassin Nalini Sriharan,the world’s longest serving woman prisoner pens her untold story of life !
Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin Nalini Sriharan is back in news with her autobiography. In jail for more than 25 years now, the world’s longest-serving woman prisoner has put together the 500-page book which will be released on November 24.
Respected by their followers no matter which party rules, becoming symbols of exceptional leadership and heroism in the face of difficult circumstances- Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning for the upcoming elections, on 21 May, after successfully campaigning in Visakhapatnam was heading for his next campaign stop to Sriperumbudur.Almost after two hours of arriving in Chennai, Rajiv Gandhi was driven by motorcade in a white Ambassador car to Sriperumbudur, stopping along the way at a few other election campaigning venues. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-Prime Minister of India, occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, in Tamil Nadu, India on 21 May 1991. At least 14 others were also killed.[1] It was carried out by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, also known as Dhanu. The attack was blamed on the LTTE-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant organization from Sri Lanka, at the time India had just ended its involvement, through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, in the Sri Lankan Civil War.
The judgment while convicting the accused, four of them to death and others to various jail terms, states that absolutely no evidence existed that any one of the conspirators ever desired the death of any Indian other than Rajiv Gandhi, though several people were killed.
The trial was conducted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA). On January 28, 1998, the designated TADA court in Chennai gave death sentences to all the 26 accused.
On appeal to the Supreme Court, only four of the accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail terms. S Nalini Sriharan is the lone surviving member of the five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and is serving life imprisonment.
On appeal to the Supreme Court, only four of the accused were sentenced to death and the others to various jail terms. S Nalini Sriharan is the lone surviving member of the five-member squad behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and is serving life imprisonment. Arrested on June 14, 1991, she was sentenced to death, along with the other 25 accused. However, The SC confirmed that the death sentence was given to only four of the convicts, including Nalini, on May 11, 1999. Nalini, who was a close friend of an LTTE operative known as V Sriharan alias Murugan, another convict in the case who had been sentenced to death, later gave birth to a girl, Harithra Murugan in prison. Upon the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi,
who petitioned for clemency for the sake of Nalini’s daughter in 2000, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Nalini was treated as a class ‘A’ convict from September 10, 1999 till the privilege was withdrawn in May 2010 after a mobile phone was allegedly recovered from her cell during a surprise check. She “regrets” the killing of the former Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have not been booked yet. In 2010, Nalini had moved the Madras High Court seeking release as she had served more than 20 years in prison. She argued that even life convicts were released after 14 years. However, the state government rejected her request. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin, Nalini Sriharan, is the world’s longest serving woman prisoner. She is back to news with her written autobiography 500-page book in Tamil that will be released on November 24.The climax is her 90-minute secret meeting with Priyanka Gandhi on March 19, 2008
In her autobiography, she lays bare her childhood, her affair with Murugan, circumstances under which she became witness to the assassination, her five-day run as an outlaw, arrest, torture in custody, birth of her child in jail, conviction and jail life. Nalini hosted two women who were brought from Sri Lanka to carry out the attack. They stayed with her and her husband while the plan was laid out.Nalini also accompanied the women and prime accused Sivarasan to attend the rally of the then Prime Minister VP Singh in order to assess security arrangements for such events.
Nalini is also accused of having taken the two women bombers, Suba and Thanu, to a garments store to buy the clothes they wore on the day of the killing and is accused of having being informed in advance that they would be targeting Rajiv Gandhi.Nalini accompanied the team to the Sriperempudur rally of the former Prime Minister. After the blast killed Rajiv Gandhi, Thanu and another conspirator, she and Suba met with Sivarasan and fled the spot.
The climax is her 90-minute secret meeting with Priyanka Gandhi on March 19, 2008, Maintaining that neither she nor her husband was aware of the assassination plan, Nalini says she told Priyanka that she was a prisoner of circumstances. Priyanka kept asking why her father, “a good man,” was murdered. Priyanka was keen to know from her as to who were behind the assassination, but she could not ascertain much, as Nalini herself was not an LTTE operative. Born in Chennai, she had studied English literature and worked in a private company till Sriharan entered her life. Nalini says she is still in the dark about the real purpose of Priyanka’s visit but says it could be part of India’s diplomacy to make Sri Lanka turn away from China’s overtures. To make her sign on confession statements, police took her to a lady doctor for the abortion. Nalini says she still regards the doctor as a goddess since she not just declined to abort but also gave a dressing down to the police officers. Nalini, when she was still a death row prisoner, wrote a letter to her daughter saying her last wish would be to spend a day with her and Sriharan. “I will cuddle you and say sorry to you for leaving you behind as an orphan in wilderness,” she says.-WTN
