Nalini wrote letters to Sonia

Nalini Sriharan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case undergoing life term in Vellore prison, wrote several letters to UPA chairperson and the former Prime Minister's widow Sonia Gandhi pleading early release.

Confirming this, sources in the Vellore prison said Nalini wrote "five or six" letters in the last six months alone.

The recurrent theme in those letters, which, as per prison rules, are vetted by the authorities before being forwarded to the addressee, was expression of gratitude for the commutation of her death sentence to life term after the intervention of Sonia.

However, in at least one or two of those letters, Nalini had sought Sonia's intervention yet again for an early release as she had spent more than 16 years in prison, the sources said. Nalini, whose husband Murugan is among the nine persons awarded death sentence in the case, had also reportedly sought Sonia's intervention in speeding up the clemency petition, which is pending before the President.

The prison authorities, however, refused to confirm or deny whether Nalini got any reply from Sonia Gandhi. Meanwhile, even as there are speculation on what transpired during the March 19 meeting between Nalini and Priyanka Vadra other than the version given by the former's advocate S. Doraisamy, Nalini's brother A. Packianathan rejected suggestions that she had asked Priyanka for celmency for Murugan.

"It was only a cordial meeting between them. There was nothing more than that," Packianathan said.

Newindpress