Nalini Sriharan back in Vellore

Nalini Sriharan, the fourth accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case undergoing life imprisonment at Puzhal Prison in Chennai suburbs was shifted to Vellore Prison  on Wednesday morning amidst high security.

Arivudai Nambi, superintendent, Vellore Prison, told DNA that Nalini has been shifted to the special prison meant for women convicts. Prison offiocials and policemen standing guard said that they saw Nalini weeping uncontrollably in the van  as it entered the prison premises.

Nalini’s husband Murugan , and two others accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were  scheduled to be executed on September 9 following the rejection of their  clemency petitions by the President of India. But they got a reprieve following the stay on their hanging granted by the Madars High Court to their plea that the punishment be commuted to life sentence because of the inordinate delay in disposing the clemency petition.

Earlier, Nalini, who too has been incarcerated in Vellore Prison  had got a court order allowing her and Murugan to meet once in every 15 days in the jail premises under the watchful eyes of the wardens.  But following complaints and charges of harassment levelled by Nalini against Vellore Prison officials and seizure of a mobile phone from her cell in Vellore prison, she was shifted to Puzhal Prison in June 2010.  

This is the first meeting between the two after her transfer to Puzhal. Nalini has approached the Madras High Court asking to set her free as she has put in more than 20 years in prison and that even life- term convicts were eligible for freedom after 14 years of imprisonment. Interestingly, Murugan, Santhan  and Perarivalan, the three convicts condemned to death sentence,  claim that they are not ordinary criminals but political prisoners.

Arguments for and against granting of clemency for the three assassins of Rajeev Gandhi took a new turn with Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu staging demonstrations all over the state asking for the immediate execution of the three convicts. They fielded the dear and near ones of the 13 people who got killed along with Rajiv Gandhi in the bomb blast carried out by a suicide bomber of the LTTE on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur.

Interestingly, the  plight of the three convicts is running parallel to that of Sam  Clayhall, the main protagonist of “The Chamber”, a best seller authored by John Grisham, the lawyer-turned novelist. Clayhall, an accused in the bombing of a Jewish lawyer’s office which resulted in the death of a group of people, was sentenced to death by the Mississippi Court after a trial which lasted for 20 years.

The last days of Clayhall were a combination of hope and despair. Thousands of people from all over the US appealed to the highest authorities for clemency to Clayhall. Adam, his grandson, also makes last ditch frantic efforts to save the old man from being led to the gas chamber. Their arguments that most of the states in the USA have done away with death penalty could not make any effect on the Governor of Mississippi and Clayhall had to walk to the chamber on the destined date. James Folley’s 1996 movie based on the same novel starring Gene Hackman as Clayhall turned out to be a big hit.