Visa given to Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts’ daughter

Arithra, the teenaged daughter of Rajiv Gandhi assassins Nalini and Murugan, has finally got the green signal from the Foreign Ministry to v...

Arithra, the teenaged daughter of Rajiv Gandhi assassins Nalini and Murugan, has finally got the green signal from the Foreign Ministry to visit her parents, both of whom are lodged in the Vellore Central prison.

Fourteen-year-old Arithra—who is a student of class X and lives in Colombo with Murugan’s mother—was apparently informed a week ago by the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka that her plea to both the Indian Government and the AICC president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to grant her a visa to visit her parents in prison, had been accepted, senior Tamil Nadu intelligence officials said.

Prison sources said that Murugan had undertaken a fast-until-death in his prison cell from December 15 in an attempt to pressure the Indian officials to grant his daughter a visa. He ended the fast only when he was informed about the Indian Embassy’s decision, the sources said.

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Murugan, now on death row for his role in the plot to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, had secretly married fellow conspirator Nalini while they were on the run. Nalini, also given the death sentence, delivered Arithra while in detention.

Four years ago, however, her death sentence was commuted to life in prison.

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