The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Government accepts Advisory Board’s rejection of Nalini’s plea for early release

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Tamil Nadu

Government accepts Advisory Board’s rejection of Nalini’s plea for early release

Special Correspondent

Subramanian Swamy to implead in Nalini case
Will make Sonia, Priyanka respondents

CHENNAI: The State government has accepted the recommendation of the Advisory Board, Special Prison for Women at Vellore, rejecting the appeal of Nalini, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, for premature release.

This was conveyed by the Home Secretary S. Malathi to the Governor’s Principal Secretary C.K. Gariyali through a letter dated December 28, 2007. Subramanian Swamy, Janata Party president, released a copy of the letter to the media at a press conference here on Friday.

Dr. Swamy, who had been pursuing the matter concerning Nalini’s commutation, told reporters that he wrote to Governor Surjit Singh Barnala in May 2007 requesting him to cite the law or constitutional provision under which his predecessor had awarded commutation to life imprisonment of the death sentence given to Nalini.

In that letter, which followed the earlier one of April 2007, Dr. Swamy had stated that according to his understanding of the law, only the President had the power to grant such commutation to life imprisonment once the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence.

The Janata Party leader said the government’s communication to the Governor’s Principal Secretary was a sequel to his letters. He would implead himself as a petitioner in the Nalini case, for which the Madras High Court had ordered notice. He would also seek to make Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Vadra respondents.

Referring to the demand for India’s intervention in Sri Lanka, Dr. Swamy said there were pre-conditions to be met. The Indian Army should be in charge of northern and eastern parts of the island-nation. An Indian cantonment of 20,000 soldiers should be set up in Colombo. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should be regarded as part of the problem. Sri Lankan Tamils should ask Prabakaran and Pottu Amman, LTTE leaders, to surrender themselves to Indian authorities to face trial for Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government should be dismissed.

Contending that the State government had asked the Superintendent of Police of Vellore district to allow the performance of namaz at a mosque on the premises of the Vellore fort, the Janata Party leader said the directive, given orally, should be withdrawn as the mosque was situated near the Jalakanteswarar temple. The mosque was a protected monument under the control of the Archaeological Survey of India.

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