india

Updated: Jul 25, 2019 11:11 IST

Nalini Sriharan, convict in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, was released on a month-long parole from Vellore central prison in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.

Nalini had sought the parole to make arrangements for her daughter’s wedding. Her daughter Harithra, who was born in prison, currently lives in the UK.

The Madras High Court had granted her parole on July 5. Nalini had argued in person before a bench of the high court seeking the parole.

The court had directed that the state government bear the escort expenses for her. In the 28 years of her incarceration, Nalini had been given only a day’s parole before when she attended the last rites of her father.

Nalini is the longest serving woman convict in the country.

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, by a woman suicide bomber during a poll rally in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumpudur.

In September last year, the Tamil Nadu government had recommended the governor to release Nalini and the six other convicts whose death sentences were commuted to life after a Supreme Court verdict.

Besides Nalini, her husband Murugan, AG Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and Ravichandran are serving life term in the case.