Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was released on parole on Thursday from the Vellore central prison. Clad in a yellow saree, a smiling Nalini was escorted by the police as she walked out of the central prison this morning.
This is the first time she has been granted a 30-day long parole during her 28-year long incarceration, barring a day's parole that was granted last year to make funeral arrangements after the death of her father.
Nalini is India’s longest-serving woman prisoner. She was granted parole by the Madras High Court, earlier this month, based on her petition seeking parole to attend her daughter’s wedding. Nalini, however will not come to her father's Royapettah house. She will spend all the 30 days with her family in a house hired for the wedding at Sathuvacheri near Vellore. Around 140km away from Chennai, she will spend the time at a rented house with her mother Padmavati, brother Pakianathan, sister Kalyani and her 26-year old daughter Harithra.
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In her petition seeking the parole, Nalini had said that she and her husband Murugan had not spent time with their daughter Harithra since she was born. She was born in prison and later raised by her grandparents and relatives in London. Nalini said in the petition that she has not done anything for her daughter since her birth and wanted to make arrangements for the wedding.
Hearing the petition, a division bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and M. Nirmal Kumar granted her a 30-day parole on conditions that she would not meet political leaders, give interviews to media or post on social media and stay within Vellore.