Former PM Rajiv Gandhi's murder convict Nalini Sriharan tries to commit suicide

Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case tried to commit suicide last night. According to independent sources, a quarrel broke down between Nalini and another inmate from her barracks, serving a life sentence in the Vellore prison. The inmate later reported the incident to the officers present who in turn, entered the barracks to investigate the matter. This has said to have "upset" Sriharan and she later decided to take her life by strangulating herself to death.

Her lawyer P. Pugazhendi, however, refuses to believe this statement released by the prison authorities and states that such incidents are quite common in prisons and cannot be the reason behind his client deciding to take such a drastic step. Backing these statements he also revealed that he had met his client earlier in March this year, right before the nationwide lockdown was put into effect, and stated that she was in very high spirits and showed no signs of distraught or depression despite being in captivity since the past 29 years.

 Nalini, her husband Murgan( a Sri Lankan National), AG Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran, and Robert Pyas are the seven convicts serving life imprisonment in regards to this case.

She also gave birth to her daughter in prison and was recently granted a month's parole to attend her daughter's marriage.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, by an LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally near Sriperumbudur.

Sriharan was sentenced to a death penalty but the sentence was later converted to life imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Government.

Earlier in March, the Madras High court had dismissed her plea seeking to be released from prison because she claimed to being "illegally detained by the police as her petition was still with the Governor which meant that she has to be produced before a court and released."

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Nalini's husband now wants her to be transferred to the Puzhal Prison.

Pugazhendi alleged that there is something else that the prison authorities seem to be hiding for the past 29 years.

The Vellore Prison authorities are yet to release any statement regarding this incident.