More than 14 cops to guard Nalini Sriharan, out on 30-day parole

CHENNAI: Clad in yellow silk sari with a red zari border, Nalini Sriharan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, stepped out of the special prison for women on Thursday morning on 30-day parole.
She was escorted by a team of 14-armed police personnel led by a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) attached to the armed forces. Amid tight security, Nalini was whisked away to deputy general secretary of Dravida Iyyaka Tamil Peravai A Singarayar’s house in Pulavar Nagar in Vallalar in Vellore City, where she would stay until her parole ends on August 24. She obtained the parole saying she needed time to make arrangements for her daughter Harithra’s wedding.
It was an emotional re-union, when the country’s longest serving woman prisoner hugged her mother Padmavathy, a retired nurse, who gave her the traditional welcome with “aarti” at the house. On seeing each other, the mother-daughter duo broke into tears.
“Nalini’s family feels this (parole) is a positive development and hope that she will be released soon,” Singarayar told TOI.
“I asked her to take good rest. Her brother’s family will visit her in a day or two. I hope Nalini’s daughter will visit her if there is no problem in legal procedures and visa,” he said. Apart from Padmavathy, two others are staying with her.
Nalini’s counsel P Pugalenthi said arrangements have been made to facilitate Harithra’s meeting with her mother. Harithra left for UK in 2005. She pursued medicine there.
“Nalini will petition the prison department to meet her husband (Murugan) during her parole period,” he said. Nalini and Murugan have been meeting for 30 minutes every fortnight for the last couple of years following a court direction.
“We have provided security to Nalini as per recommendations,” superintendent of police of Vellore, K Pravesh Kumar, told TOI.
A DSP, inspector, two sub-inspectors and 10 to 12 armed police personnel would be deployed in shift, round-the-clock, said the SP, adding, “She need not visit the police station and sign the register as there was no such parole conditions.”
She was, however, instructed not to take part in public and political programmes nor meet politicians. If she violates the conditions, her parole would be subjected to cancellation with immediate effect, said sources in the prison department.