Nalini News

Nalini Sriharan and five other remaining convicts have been released, who are serving life term for about three decades in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said the judgement of the top court in the case of A G Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the case, is applicable in their matter.

Madras High Court on Friday rejected a plea from Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran, both convicted in the former PM Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. They had pleaded for their release without even the consent of the State Governor. The High Courts do not have the power under Article 226 of the Constitution to do so, unlike the Supreme Court, the HC said.

The Madras High Court on Friday rejected the plea of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination convict Nalini Sriharan in which she had sought premature release.

A bench of justices S S Sundresh and N Sathish Kumar gave the direction to the state home secretary on a plea by Ravichandran's mother Rajeshwari.

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after one of the convicts alleged that the probe agency did not investigate into the `larger conspiracy` to kill late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.The apex court has fixed August 16th as the next date for further hearing in the matter.Convict A. G. Perarivalan has alleged that the

Tamil Nadu government on Friday told the Madras High Court that it was yet to take a decision on the premature release of Nalini Sriharan, the life convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case since her case with other co-convicts are pending before the Supreme Court.

MHA officials said that no decision has been taken yet on the proposal and consultations with the Union Law Ministry are still underway.

It is not the first time that the state government had approached the Centre seeking its views on its decision to remit the sentences of the convicts.

Convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Sriharan and Santhan lodged in the Central prison here for nearly 25 years, have turned deeply spiritual.

Nalini was sentenced to death by the trial court in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on January 28, 1998. 

The SC had on December 2, 2015 directed the Tamil Nadu government not to remit the life term of the convicts without the approval of the Centre.

While announcing the decision, the J Jayalalithaa government had said that it has sought the Centre's views on the move.

Nalini Sriharan, serving life term for her role in former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, on Wednesday attended her father P Sankaranarayanan's final rites here during a 12-hour parole.

The entire issue was rooted on the conflicting positions taken by the central and the Tamil Nadu governments on latter's move to release Sriharan, Perarivalan and Suthendraraja after commutation of their death sentence.