'Report on Nalini's plea will take more time'

An advisory board formed to consider the plea for premature release of Nalini, undergoing life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case, will take some more time to submit its report to the government, a top official said.

"The board's recommendations are under preparation. It will take some more time to finalise its recommendations," Vellore District Collector C Rajendran, heading the Board, told PTI today, a day after it heard Nalini at Vellore women's prison where she is lodged.

Besides Nalini, imprisoned for the last 19 years, the board also heard the pleas of two other convicts in the case, Jayakumar and Robert Payas, seeking premature release.

Earlier, Rajendran told reporters at Vellore that it was for the state government to decide on its recommendations, adding, "We will be sending our report in a few days."

The board was set up following a direction from the Madras High Court on September 24, 2008 while partly allowing a petition by Nalini, to consider her request.

The plea of Nalini, arrested on June 14, 1991 and sentenced to death by a special court along with 25 others in January 1998, was rejected by authorities concerned in October 2007.

In May 1999, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence of only four including Nalini. Her death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment by the state on April 24, 2000 after the then governor allowed her clemency petition.

"No, there is no such news. Yesterday, the committee met. They will be forwarding their recommendation only in the course of the day," Nalini's counsel S Doraiswamy said when asked about possibility of Nalini's release.