Where is Nalini’s daughter? Indian agencies clueless

LONDON: Indian intelligence agencies are clueless about the whereabouts of Megara, daughter of Nalini Sriharan basking in the limelight after her jailhouse tryst with Priyanka Vadra in March.

“Megara is not in London. She has given us the slip. We are trying to zero in on her,” a senior Indian government official told DNA on condition of anonymity.

Another official disclosed that Megara was sighted in Norway four months ago before the trail ran cold.

Megara was born in a jail in Tamil Nadu after both her parents were arrested for helping assassinate former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. After Megara’s birth Nalini was able to keep the child with her in jail in for a few years. After both Nalini and her husband Murugan were sentenced to death, Murugan’s mother took the child with her to Sri Lanka.

The failure of Indian agencies to keep tabs on Megara is a severe indictment of Research & Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau and Defence Ministry sleuths posted in the Indian High Commission in London under diplomatic cover. Some posts are in fact declared intelligence-gathering slots in India House.  

Sources revealed that India House has a new IB honcho, Asif Ibrahimi, who has replaced Rajat Bagchi. Both are from the Indian Police Service and are on deputation to the IB. Career diplomats belong to the Indian Foreign Service. RAW, of course, has its own cadre called RAS.

It was after Nalini had given birth to Megara that Sonia Gandhi, Congress president and Rajiv’s widow, had pleaded on her behalf and got her sentence commuted from death to life imprisonment in 2000. And on March 19 this year, Ms Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka had visited the Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu to ask Nalini why they had assassinated her father at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.

As a child Megara was taken out of India on a Sri Lankan passport because her grandmother and father were both Sri Lankan citizens. From then onwards, Megara’s nationality has become a subject of litigation in Indian courts. While her parents argue that Megara is an Indian citizen by birth and because her mother Nalini is an Indian too, the Indian authorities refuse to accept the claim.

In the past Indian officials also refused permission to Megara to visit her parents in jail. Following a lengthy legal battle, Megara was finally allowed to visit her parents in jail in January 2006. However, Indian officials still refuse to give her Indian citizenship.

Now Megara is a teenaged schoolgirl studying in Class 10. Unconfirmed reports claim she is living with her father’s brother in London and wants to become a doctor. However Indian agencies last know of her living in Norway.

“The LTTE was banned in the UK and was forced to shift base to Paris. From there they have also been forced to shift to Scandinavia so it is much more likely that she is still in Norway,” said an Indian government official. “Her studies are more than likely being funded by the LTTE,” he added.