Nalini says regrets Rajiv killing

Nalini Sriharan, serving a life sentence for her involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, says she “regrets” the killing of the former Prime Minister and claims that the real conspirators have not been booked yet.

Calling Rajiv Gandhi a “great leader” and a “loss” to the country, Nalini, the lone surviving member of the five- member squad behind the assassination, said “I regret the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.”

Nalini was one of the prime accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. When asked whether the real conspirators have been brought to book, Nalini, whose interview was mailed by her lawyer Elangovan in reply to a questionnaire sent by PTI, said “No, as the real killers Sivarasan, Suba and Dhanu were already dead.”

Dhanu, a suicide bomber, had carried out the attack at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on the fateful night of May 21, 1991 killing Rajiv Gandhi and 15 others on the spot. Dhanu perished in the bomb attack.

During the course of investigations, pictures clicked by S Haribabu, an LTTE photographer who was also killed in the blast, exposed the role of Nalini and others.

Arrested about a month after the assassination which shook the country, Nalini was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted on 16 counts of murder.

However, her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment at the intervention of Congress President Sonia Gandhi who pleaded for clemency on account of Nalini’s young daughter who was born in jail.

Nalini said in her e-mail reply through her lawyer that her meeting with Priyanka Gandhi who had come calling to visit her in jail in March was “historic”.

Nalini, whose petition for premature release is pending before the Madras High Court, said the Gandhi family and especially Sonia Gandhi has been kind to her. Her husband Murugan, an LTTE supporter sentenced to death for the same crime is presently lodged with her in Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu.

PTI