Chennai:
The Tamil Nadu government will take a decision on Nalini Sriharan's early release from prison in two weeks time. The counsel for the state government informed this to the Madras High Court on Thursday.
This state government also submitted the Prison Advisory Board's report on Nalini's plea for early release to the court. The government will also seek additional information from the board. The board has reportedly given a favourable report.
P S Raman, Advocate General, Tamil Nadu government, said, "Hopefully we should be able to report the decision before March 29, but the truth of the matter is the government has asked for certain additional details from the board and collector. For some factors, beyond the government's control, if the decision making process takes a little longer we may have to ask the court for some more time."
The case has been adjourned till March 29.
The Prison Advisory Board was constituted to consider the plea for premature release by Nalini, serving life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Nalini's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Sonia Gandhi intervened. Gandhi, whose husband, Rajiv, was killed by Nalini, asked for the reprieve for Nalini after the assassin had a baby daughter.
Earlier, describing the latest developments, Nalini's lawyer, M Radhakrishnan said, "Based on the content of the report, the court may ask the Tamil Nadu government to decide on Nalini's case...or may ask the state government to approach the Centre for their advice."
The DMK government has already indicated that it will consult with the Centre before making any decision on Nalini's future.
In September, Nalini went on a hunger strike to demand that she be set free. In her appeal to the Madras High Court, she said, "I would like to settle down peacefully... I am already 43. Due to my health condition after 18 years in jail, I cannot expect to live long.''
Nalini was arrested in 1991 and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 1999. After Sonia Gandhi intervened, her sentence was changed to life imprisonment a year later.
Nalini first asked to be released from jail in 2007, but an advisory board at that time rejected her request. Nalini appealed to the Madras High Court after that.
Hope for Nalini's early release brightened after Priyanka Gandhi secretly met her in prison two years ago. Priyanka, who was a teenager when her father was killed, later told NDTV that she had forgiven her father's killer. (
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