The Chennai, April 27: The Madras High Court today rejected the petition of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination convict Nalini Sriharan. She had sought a premature release in the petition. A division bench of Justices K K Sasidharan and Justice R Subramanian passed the order.

The Tamil Nadu government in November 2017 opposed the plea of Nalini Sriharan in the Madras High Court, that it cannot entertain the plea of premature release, as a similar matter was pending before the Supreme Court in connection with revocation of sentences of all the seven convicts in the case. In response to a petition filed by Nalini, the government gave an argument that she was a party respondent in the plea filed by the centre which was still pending in the Supreme Court

Nalini was arrested on June 14, 1991, in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and was convicted by a Special Court at Poonamallee, Tamil Nadu, in 1998. She sentenced to death by The Supreme Court in 1999. In 2000 following the mercy petition her sentenced was commuted to life imprisonment under article 161 of the constitution. Six other persons were also convicted in the case. Nalini has spent more than 25 years in jail

Meanwhile, the Rajiv Gandhi’s son and Congress president Rahul Gandhi had recently said during an event in Singapore that his family has "completely forgiven" the killers as they find it "difficult to hate people, reported, Zee News. The former Prime Minister was killed by a suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991, at a poll rally. The suicide bomber was identified as Dhanu.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2018 01:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).