Chennai, April 16
The reported statements made by Nalini Sriharan, the only survivor of the five-member assassination gang who killed Rajiv Gandhi and now serving a life sentence, is nothing but a “craftly enacted drama” to secure premature release. This is what a section of the investigators, who were associated with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, feel.
“Nalini was very much part of the conspiracy and even admitted it in her confessional statement and she was sentenced to death by the court, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court, said a former joint director of Intelligence Bureau who was posted here during the former Prime Minister’s assassination.
“Her replies to Priyanka Gandhi are nothing but lies. She pleads ignorance about the plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi but now she says her sins have been washed off with Priyanka’s visit. These are all contradictory statements and she is trying to exploit the situation and with the help of her lawyers trying to create a hype for a premature release.
That was why she wrote letters to Sonia Gandhi enquiring about her health,” he said.
Though Nalini admitted to Priyanka on March 19 at the Vellor special jail for women that she was present at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991 when LTTE’s suicide bomber Dhanu killed Rajiv, she pleaded ignorance about the conspiracy.
“In that case why did she flee with Murugan? Did she not know that Murugan was a Sri Lankan Tamil and a member of the LTTE deputed to do the groundwork for the assassination?” the former IB official asked.
After the secret visit became public, she through her brother P.S. Bhagyanathan, who was accused in the same case, said, “I feel all my sins have been washed off by Priyanka’s visit. I feel she has pardoned me by calling on me in the jail. I am indebted to her all my life.”
Bhagyanathan too expressed his family’s gratitude for Sonia Gandhi as she was instrumental in converting Nalini’s death sentence to life as her daughter Meghara, now 16 and studying abroad, would have been orphaned since her husband Murugan was also given death sentence.
Though Nalini’s lawyer S. Duraiswamy disagrees pointing out that the home ministry was rejecting her petition for premature release since the past three years, former intelligence officials point out that she was trying to “exert influence by exploiting her meeting with Priyanka.”
“The application under the RTI Act by D. Rajkumar, who is Duraiswamy’s junior, asking details about the secret meeting at Vellore jail was nothing but a tactic to make it public and then take advantage of the situation to influence the state power to grant her a pardon,” a former special investigation team (SIT) officer said.
Nalini, who is a graduate from Ethiraj College here, has spent more than 16 years in prison and recently scored a first class in MCA from IGNOU. Normally, a convict can petition for premature release after 15 years in prison even if sentenced to life.
“Though the Gandhi family might have pardoned her but there were 15 others who were killed along with Rajiv Gandhi and it is likely that they will move court to oppose a pre-mature release for Nalini,” said a SIB official who in his report to IB headquarters in 1990 had warned of an LTTE assassination attempt on Rajiv Gandhi.
