Nalini fears threat to life, probe ordered

Chennai, May 13 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Government has appointed a committee to look into the allegations by Nalini Sriharan, who is serving life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, that her life was under threat in jail.

The committee headed by DIG of Prisons (Coimbatore) Govindarajan would also go into her other charges, including harassment by jail officials at the high-security Vellore Women's Prison, where she is lodged.

In two letters addressed to the Additional Director General of Police (prisons), copies of which were released to the media by her lawyers on Wednesday, Nalini accused jail officials of torturing her."

She also alleged her cell had not been cleaned for days and expressed fears that officials may be 'planting' something and 'recover'.

On May 10, the government had informed the State Assembly that she had made calls to foreign countries, including Sri Lanka and Britain, from a mobile phone seized from her cell.

Tamil Nadu Government had rejected the plea of Nalini and three other convicts in the case for premature release, based on a report by the prison advisory board.

Nalini has been convicted on 16 counts of murder, and found guilty under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code on all counts.

She was also convicted under Section 3 of TADA and Section 120-B of the IPC, dealing with conspiracy.

Nalini's original death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Congress President Sonia Gandhi sought a reprieve for her after she had had a baby daughter. (ANI)