Nalini Sriharan, the longest serving woman prisoner in the country till last week, on Monday said she wants to lead a “quite life” with her husband who is also a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case by moving to the United Kingdom where their daughter, Harithra, lives.
Nalini, who met her husband Sriharan aka Murugan at the Trichy Camp, told DH over the phone that she spoke her mind to Priyanka Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter, when the former met her in prison in 2008 and “answered” all her questions.
“This was the first time I could speak at length with my husband and spend time with him. In the jail, we were only allowed to meet for 30 minutes every 15 days. But today we met for a few hours and spoke a lot about our future,” Nalini said, adding that her husband will file an application before authorities seeking permission to talk to Harithra.
Murugan is lodged at the Trichy transit camp since he is a Sri Lankan national. The duo met in 1990 in Chennai and got married in 1991 before they were arrested for their role in the assassination. Harithra was born when Nalini was serving her prison term and now works as a doctor in the UK and lives with her paternal grandmother.
“I want to lead a very normal life like any other housewife. I want to spend time with my daughter and my husband. We plan to move to the UK and be with our daughter for the rest of our lives,” Nalini said. She also added that efforts are being taken to get travel documents for her and Murugan to live with their daughter.
Nalini, daughter of a nurse and a policeman, is accused of harbouring Dhanu, the suicide bomber who detonated the belt bomb killing Rajiv Gandhi, and Subha, the stand-by suicide bomber sent by LTTE.
To a question on whether she regrets Rajiv Gandhi’s death, Nalini said she belongs to a “Congress family” and that she felt bad about being accused of killing a member from the same family. “When Indira Gandhi died, I was very young, and I remember crying profusely. We didn’t cook for a few days,” she said.
On her meeting with Priyanka, Nalini said the Congress general secretary did ask “several doubts” about her father’s death. “I did explain to her my side of the story. But I cannot say whether she was satisfied with my answers. It is her decision,” Nalini added.