19.4.2008
The Vellore Central Prison authorities have allowed Nalini
who is in the women section, to meet her husband once
in every 15 days. Accordingly, they were supposed to meet
again on 5th April, but Murugan refused too meet Nalini
and the meeting did not take place.
Subsequently,
according to the report in the Tamil news portal, Nalini
attempted to commit suicide on 13 April inside her cell.
But prisons authorities denied that there was no incident
of such nature.
In
the meantime, Murugan’s mother, brother and sister
visited on 15 April and met with Murugan and subsequently
they went to meet Nalini, but she refused to meet them
saying that she was having an acute stomach ache.
At
this point of time, when Murugan came to know of the suicide
attempt by Nalini, and it was revealed that Murugan too
tried to commit suicide on 17 April and as reporters visited
the prison for the confirmation of the rumor, prison superintendent
Narayanmoorthy has denied and said that it was simply
a rumor.
Murugan,
the Sri Lankan, married Nalini an Indian Tamil and both
were sentenced to death along with Santhan and Perarivalan
in January 1998, nearly seven years after the former Indian
prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met a gory end in Sriperumbudur
on May 21, 1991.
On
May 11, 1998, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence.
The
convicts then approached the Tamil Nadu governor for reprieve.
In the meantime Congress president Sonia Gandhi, widow
of the late Rajiv Gandhi, had appealed for clemency for
Nalini.
Subsequently,
Clemency for Nalini was recommended by the Tamil Nadu
Cabinet in light of the fact that she is the mother of
an eight-year-old girl who was born in prison and was
lodged in the Vellore central prison with her.
Following
the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu Government, then
Tamil Nadu Governor M Fathima Beevi on April 2000 showed
mercy on Nalini, one of the four condemned convicts in
the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and commuted her
sentence to life imprisonment.
However
no clemency for the other three, including Nalini's husband
Murugan was offered. The authorities are still to finalize
the date for the hangings.
Courtesy - Asian
Tribune