Nalini's plea: Board to send report to TN govt in few days

RAJIV-CONVICT

Vellore, Jan 21 (PTI) The Advisory Board formed to
consider the plea of Nalini, a life convict in the
assasination of the seventh Prime Minister of India, Rajiv
Gandhi, for her premature release, would submit its report to
the Tamil Nadu government in a few days.
The government constituted board, headed by District
Collector C Rajendran, had met for over three hours on
Wednesday and heard Nalini on her plea at Vellore women's
prison, where she is lodged. The meeting went on till late in
the night.
Rajendran told reporters this morning that board
members have to sit and prepare the report. However, it was
for the state government to decide on its recommendations.
"We will be sending our report in a few days," he said.
"According to the jail memorandum, there are some
criteria for consideration of early release of prisoners.
According to that, we have discussed," he said.
The board also heard the pleas of two other convicts
in the case, Jayakumar and Robert Payas, seeking premature
release, at the men's prison.
District Superintendent of Police, Shekhar, District
Judge Kalaiarasan, Regional Probational Officer of Prisons,
Krishnamma Namagiri and Lecturer from Academy of Prisons and
Correctional Activities, Julie, are the other board members.
Nalini presented her case for over ten minutes before
the board, which was set up following a direction from the
Madras High Court on September 24, 2008 while partly allowing
a petition by her, to consider her request.
Her earlier request for premature release was rejected
by the authorities concerned in October 2007.
Asked about the possibility of Nalini being freed, her
counsel S Doraiswamy said, "No, there is no such news.
The committee met yesterday. They will be forwarding their
recommendation only in the course of the day".

"It will take two or three days to formulate the
report and send it to the government. And the government will
consider thereafter. It will take quite a long time, it is not
easy," Doraiswamy said.
He said the Board has not made any recommendation.
"They have to prepare a report for 11 persons and they have to
forward it. It will take two-three days for them".
"Prison officers have already made a report that she
may be given a premature release. On the basis of the report
on premature release, an order has to be passed," he said.
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who is
against Nalini's release, said the matter cannot be easily
disposed of by just an advisory board. "There are many more
stages to go through and I will fight each and every stage in
the memory of Rajiv Gandhi".
"I am one of the parties that has to be heard before
orders are passed. I had gone to court last time and the state
government was then forced to take a stand against her
release," he added.
Nalini, arrested on June 14 1991, was sentenced to
death by a special court along with 25 others in January 1998.
But in May 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed the death
sentence of only four including Nalini. The state government,
by an April 24, 2000 order had commuted the death penalty to
life imprisonment after the then Governor allowed her clemency
petition.

On September 11 last, Nalini, who has served over 18
years in Vellore prison, had filed a petition in the Madras
High Court, seeking her premature release.
She had contended that she was required to serve 14
years of imprisonment to be entitled for premature release
under Sec 433(a) of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code), which she
completed on June 18, 2005.
In her petition in the High Court, she had sought a
direction to the government to constitute an advisory board in
accordance with law to take a decision on her premature
release in the light of the Court orders.
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber in
Sriperumubudur on May 21, 1991. PTI COR
AHM