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Governor gives new life to Rajiv Gandhi's assassin

Tamil Nadu Governor M Fathima Beevi on Tuesday showed mercy to Nalini, one of the four condemned convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and commuted her sentence to life imprisonment.

There will, however, be no clemency for the other three, including Nalini's husband Murugan.

Nalini, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan were sentenced to death in January 1998, nearly seven years after the former prime minister met a gory end in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. On May 11, 1998, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence.

A review petition followed. The Supreme Court rejected it on October 8.

The convicts then approached the Tamil Nadu governor.

Clemency for Nalini was recommended by the Tamil Nadu Cabinet in light of the fact that she is the mother of an eight-year-old girl who was born in prison and is currently lodged in the Vellore central prison with her.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, widow of the late Rajiv Gandhi, had also appealed for clemency for Nalini.

The authorities are still to finalise the date for the hangings.

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