Nalini Sriharan, one of the six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who were released on Saturday, reiterated that she had no role in the plot to kill the former prime minister. Talking to reporters in Chennai on Sunday, a day after she walked out of the special prison for women in Vellore, Nalini said she was not aware of the conspiracy.
Nalini, the longest-serving woman prisoner in the country, said she wanted to lead a normal life but was yet to decided on whether to settle down in Chennai or with her daughter in London.
"Family will be my priority and I am not going to do anything professional. My whole life is totally destroyed already so I am going to take care of the family," she said.
Nalini's husband Murugan—a Sri Lankan national—along with another convict Santhan, also from Sri Lanka, were released from the Vellore prison. Besides them, two other Sri Lankan nationals—Robert Payas and Jayakumar—were released from the Puzhal prison in Chennai. All the four were taken to the special refugee camp in Tiruchirappalli to be lodged there.
A.G. Perarivalan, another convict in the case, had been released in May.
Nalini recalled her meeting with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in jail in 2008. Priyanka had then sought to know about the assassination of her father and Nalini said she divulged whatever she knew.
Priyanka turned emotional and cried when she met her, Nalini said, adding that other things that transpired in that meeting cannot be disclosed as it pertained to the Congress leader's personal views.
Meanwhile, in an interview to the NDTV, Nalini showered praise on Priyanka and called her an “angel”.
"She is a very kind person. She was an angel. And she made me respect myself because... we were not treated properly in jail," Nalini said.
She told the channel that she had received execution orders seven times before her death sentence was commuted in 2001.
Talking to reporters, Nalini urged the Tamil Nadu government to take the necessary actions to release her husband as soon as possible from the Tiruchirappalli Special camp.
"On Monday I am going to meet my husband at Trichy Special camp. We got married and we have a child who lives aboard. My daughter is so excited to meet her father. I really want to go and see a few places in Tamil Nadu mainly the late Kamala Sir Memorial,” Nalini said.
She said she wanted to meet Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and thank him for helping her come out of jail. “I am very thankful to the Gandhi Family. I am ready to meet them if I get a chance," she further said.
Nalini was arrested in 1991 when she was 24-years-old. She was a stenographer at a private firm when she met Murugan, a member of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber named Dhanu at a poll rally in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on the night of May 21, 1991.