By IANS,
Chennai : Lawyers of Nalini, convicted for assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and Tamil Nadu government’s advocates Wednesday made conflicting claims about why Madras High Court Judge S. Nagamuthu adjourned to Aug 29 the pleas for premature release of Nalini and three others.
Nalini’s lawyer S. Doraiswamy claimed the court was piqued by the non-appearance of the government side for the fourth consecutive hearing, and hoped the case would be disposed of on merit in the subsequent hearing.
“My learned opponent (Advocate General G. Masilamani) failed to appear for the fourth time without assigning proper reasons. Since Nalini has already spent 17 years in prison and has challenged the improper rejection of her justifiable demand for premature release, the judge rejected a request to adjourn the matter to Sept 4 and said he would dispose of the matter suo motu if the other side failed to appear Aug 29,” Doraiswamy told IANS.
The government side disputed Doraiswamy’s claims.
“These are baseless claims. We had applied to the Chief Justice to bunch the three cases seeking premature release together and the matter was heard the first time as a consolidated case today (Wednesday). Our counter affidavit is under preparation and we will contest the matter in due course,” said Masilamani.
The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of Nalini and three others for the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur on the outskirts of Chennai.
Nalini’s death sentence was commuted to a life sentence by the president of India following the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on humanitarian grounds of the convict being a young mother.
Nalini moved the Madras High Court for premature release on technical grounds April 30 claiming she had spent more than the upper limit of a life sentence of 14 years. The other co-accused appealed for a similar release, saying the eight-year wait for the hangman was worse than death.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Gandhi, secretly met Nalini in the high security Vellore prison March 19, an event claimed by the convict’s supporters as forgiveness for the assassination.
Gandhi was assassinated by female suicide bomber Dhanu in May 1991 in Sriperumbudur near here.