Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini out on parole to perform father's last rites

S Nalini, life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has been granted parole for 12 hours between 8 am to 8 pm on Wednesday to pay last rites to her father.

The body of Nalini’s father, P Sankara Narayanan, a former inspector of police, will be brought to the city where his last rites will be performed.

The final rites will take place at Ellaiamman Koil Street in Kotturpuram. Security arrangements have been beefed up by the city police.

Prison sources said that her mother, Padmavathy, had petitioned the Vellore prison authorities seeking three days emergency leave after which the day’s permission was granted.

Arrested about a month after the assassination which shook the country on May 21, 1991, Nalini was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted on 16 counts of murder.

However, her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment at the intervention of Congress President Sonia Gandhi who pleaded for clemency to her