Chennai: As Nalini Sriharan walked out of Vellore Jail after 31 years on Saturday, the convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case thanked the people of Tamil Nadu.
“I am thankful to the people of Tamil Nadu who supported me for 32 years. I thank both the state and Union government,” Nalini told mediapersons, adding that her lawyers will also speak during the press meet on Sunday.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the release of all six convicts – Nalini, Jaykumar, RP Ravichandran, Robert Pias, Suthendraraja and Sriharan – who were serving life sentences for their role in the killing of former PM Rajiv at Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
Another convict AG Perarivalan had already been released in May this year, and the Supreme Court said that judgment applied in its latest order too.
The top court’s decision was slammed as ‘totally unacceptable and completely erroneous’ by Congress. The party also disagreed with its former president Sonia Gandhi, who had intervened to have Nalini’s death sentence reduced to life imprisonment in 2000.
