S. Nalini Sriharan was one of the convicts in the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. She was part of a five-member suicide squad and the only survivor of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. She was released on November 12, 2022 after serving 31 years in the Vellore Central Jail in Tamil Nadu, making Nalini the longest-serving female prisoner in India.
Wiki/Biography
Nalini was born in 1967 (now 55 years old; 2022) in Ambalavanapuram, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. She graduated in English Literature from Ethiraj College in Chennai and then worked in a private company in Chennai. On June 14, 1991, she was arrested for her alleged involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. While in prison, she successfully obtained an MCA (Master of Computer Applications) degree and a diploma in tailoring from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 2009.
appearance
Height (approximate): 5′ 4″
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Black
Family and caste
Nalini belongs to a Malayalam family.
Parents and siblings
Her father, P Sankara Narayanan, a police inspector, died in 2016 at the age of 92.
Nalini sitting next to her father’s body
Her mother, Padmavathi Ammal, was a nurse at a hospital in Chennai. Many people are not aware that it was Mahatma Gandhi who named her mother Padmavathi.
Nalini’s mother Padmavati outside Vellore Jail
Nalini is the eldest of three children. She has an elder sister, Kalyani, and a younger brother, PS Bhaganathan. Police also arrested her mother and brother in 1991 for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, but the Supreme Court acquitted them in 1998.
Relationships and Children
Nalini’s husband is Sri Lankan citizen V Sriharan alias Murugan, another convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Photo of Nalini and Murugan in 1991
When Nalini was arrested by the police and imprisoned, she was already two months pregnant. On January 21, 1992, Nalini gave birth to a daughter, originally named Megra. Later, her name was changed to Harisla Sriharan. Harisla was imprisoned with her mother until she was 6 years old.
Nalini and Murugan and their daughter are in jail
After this, Harithra’s grandmother took her to Sri Lanka and later to London, where she worked as a doctor.
Nalini’s role in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination
Nalini was the only member of the five-member assassination team who survived the blast that killed Rajiv Gandhi. On May 21, 1991, Nalini, along with the assassination team (including the mastermind Sivarasan), went to Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu to attend a political rally of Rajiv Gandhi.
Remains of the clothes Rajiv Gandhi was wearing when he was assassinated are kept at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi
Pictures captured with the camera of local photographer S Haribabu (who also died in the blast) helped expose Nalini’s links with the conspirators who assassinated Rajiv Gandhi.
Nalini and Shubha (another prisoner) sit in the crowd at a Rajiv Gandhi rally
Camera used by S. Haribabu
The Special Investigation Team’s investigation found that Nalini had provided shelter to members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who were responsible for carrying out the assassination, and that the members had been staying with Nalini and her husband during the assassination plan.
Arrest and sentencing
After a few days on the run, Nalini and her husband Murugan were arrested at the Saidapet bus stand in Chennai (Madras) on June 14, 1991. She was charged under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (participation in conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi) and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder). As a result, the TADA court sentenced her and 25 other criminals to death for their involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Some human rights organizations protested against the court’s secret trial. Rajiv Gandhi’s widow Sonia Gandhi also filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India seeking leniency for Nalini as she did not want Nalini’s daughter to become an orphan. As a result, on April 24, 2000, the Governor of Tamil Nadu commuted Nalini’s death sentence to life imprisonment.
S. Nalini Sriharan Autobiography
In 2016, Nalini published a 500-page autobiography titled Rajiv Kollam: Maraikkappatta Unmaigalum, Priyanka Nalini Santipum (English title: Rajiv Kollam: The Hidden Truth and Priyanka and Nalini’s Meeting), in which she attempted to tell her story. In the 500-page book written in Malayalam, she talks about her childhood, her relationship with Murugan, her involvement in the assassination plot, her five-day escape as a fugitive, her arrest, torture in custody, the birth of her child in prison, her conviction and prison life, and her meeting with Priyanka Gandhi in 2008.
Nalini’s mother Padmavathi Ammal receives her daughter’s first book from MDMK general secretary Vaiko
release
On November 11, 2022, the Supreme Court of India released six defendants sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, including Nalini Sriharan and RP Ravichandran. After being released from prison, she told the media that she hoped to meet her daughter and husband Murugan who live in the UK. She said,
This is my priority. My whole family is devastated… I have to gather them together bit by bit. We will apply to the Sri Lankan High Commission for urgent passports and documents so that our daughter can take us to the UK.”
Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, speaks to reporters at a press conference after being released from jail in Chennai on November 13, 2022
Facts/Trivia
- Nalini is an excellent student. She scored 87% in her graduation examination, the highest among all prisoners in Tamil Nadu.
- Sentenced to life in prison, Nalini has only been granted parole three times. The first was an emergency parole of a few hours in 2004 when her brother got married, the second was also an emergency parole when her father died in 2016, and the third and longest (51 days) was ordinary parole when her daughter got married in July 2019.
- Nalini was unable to see her daughter for two years after she was born as authorities did not grant permission.
- She expressed deep regret over the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi but also alleged that the real perpetrators of the conspiracy were still at large.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education