Nalini Sriharan, one of the convicts in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, allegedly committed suicide last night. She had been lodged in Vellore women’s prison since last 29 years now and decided to kill herself last night, said her lawyer.
In his response to this astounding news, her lawyer, P. Pugalenthi, claimed that this is the first time that Sriharan has even tried to take such an extreme step. In an exclusive interview with India Today Tv, the lawyer talked further about the incident.
There was an alleged quarrel between Nalini and another inmate, also convicted to life imprisonment. The other inmate took the issue to the jailer and apparently, Nalini committed suicide right after. The lawyer emphasized on knowing the whole issue properly before drawing anymore conclusions.
The New Indian Express reported that Nalini, at first, “threatened” to end her life after she got into a fight with the other inmate. “She had a tiff over the stay of a co-prisoner in the jail on Monday night. The prison officers had intervened. Yet she threatened to commit suicide. But, the issue was settled”, stated a prison officer.
Nalini’s husband, Murugan, who is also arrested for the assassination, said that it is hard to believe for him that she ended her life. “She had faced a lot of extremely difficult situations in the past but never attempted to end her life”. Murugan was still unsure as to what had exactly happened and stated that this might also be a tactic by prison authorities to “distract attention”.
Nalini and Murugan Sriharan were amongst the seven people who were convicted for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. They were a part of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was a militant separatist group, fighting for the creation of an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
