By IANS,
Chennai : The Madras High Court Friday reserved orders on a petition filed by Nalini Murugan seeking early release from the life term awarded to her for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The court also reserved orders on petitions by three other convicts in the case for commuting their death sentences.
While Nalini said she had spent three more years than those prescribed for a life term, the others argued that waiting for an indefinite period for the death sentence to be executed was worse than death.
The central government told the court it would second the stand of the Tamil Nadu government, which has stiffly opposed the releases.
Justice S. Nagamuthu ordered the Vellore prison superintendent to file an affidavit with the details of the recommendations of the advisory panel Monday after hearing the arguments from Nalini’s counsel S. Doraiswamy and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy who have consecutively made exactly opposite requests for the past three days.
Swamy said he suspected the central government’s motives as it refused to make its position clear in the matter and demanded a re-investigation, as too many questions remained unanswered in the case.
Advocate General G. Masilamani contested this, saying no hidden motives could be imputed as both the central and state governments had opposed Nalini’s release.
The defence would study its position after the prison superintendent filed the affidavit, Doraiswamy contended.
Nalini and three others were arrested in 1991 in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and sentenced to death in 2000.
The Madras High Court commuted Nalini’s death sentence to life imprisonment, upholding her technical objections to the rejection of her appeal for clemency by former state governor Fathima Beevi.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also recommended the same on humanitarian grounds since Nalini and Murugan alias Sriharan, a former Tamil Tiger, had got married in jail and the were parents of a girl. Both had been sentenced to death.
The Supreme Court has ruled that both parents of a child cannot be awarded the death penalty together.
The Tamil Nadu government had ordered the early release of 1,405 life convicts earlier this week to mark the birth anniversary of former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK founder C.N. Annadurai.