Chennai:
Nalini Sriharan broke her two-day-old fast on Wednesday morning after jail authorities assured her that they would form an advisory board next month to consider her plea for premature release.
The woman convicted for assassinating former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, began her hunger strike at the Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu on Monday, saying that after over 18 years in prison, she deserved to be free.
On Tuesday morning, her mother had been denied permission to meet her.
Nalini has served 18-and-a- half years in jail in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment at Sonia Gandhi's request after Nalini gave birth to a little girl, Meghara, inside jail. Sonia Gandhi pleaded that she didn't want Meghara to be orphaned.
In 2007, Nalini asked the Madras High Court to release her from jail on the grounds of good conduct. An advisory board rejected this proposal. The court ordered the Tamil Nadu government to then set up another advisory board to consider Nalini's petition. This new board is yet to be formed.
Hope for Nalini's early release brightened after Priyanka Gandhi secretly met her last year. Priyanka, who was a teenager when her father was killed, told NDTV that she had forgiven her father's killer.
Nalini has approached the Madras High Court yet again, with this plea: "I would like to settle down peacefully... I am already 43. Due to my health condition after 18 years in jail, I cannot expect to live long.''
Meanwhile, the Congress has said it is for the Tamil Nadu government and the courts to decide over the matter. But the DMK has said that it's something for the Centre to decide.
The woman convicted for assassinating former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, began her hunger strike at the Vellore jail in Tamil Nadu on Monday, saying that after over 18 years in prison, she deserved to be free.
On Tuesday morning, her mother had been denied permission to meet her.
Nalini has served 18-and-a- half years in jail in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment at Sonia Gandhi's request after Nalini gave birth to a little girl, Meghara, inside jail. Sonia Gandhi pleaded that she didn't want Meghara to be orphaned.
In 2007, Nalini asked the Madras High Court to release her from jail on the grounds of good conduct. An advisory board rejected this proposal. The court ordered the Tamil Nadu government to then set up another advisory board to consider Nalini's petition. This new board is yet to be formed.
Hope for Nalini's early release brightened after Priyanka Gandhi secretly met her last year. Priyanka, who was a teenager when her father was killed, told NDTV that she had forgiven her father's killer.
Nalini has approached the Madras High Court yet again, with this plea: "I would like to settle down peacefully... I am already 43. Due to my health condition after 18 years in jail, I cannot expect to live long.''
Meanwhile, the Congress has said it is for the Tamil Nadu government and the courts to decide over the matter. But the DMK has said that it's something for the Centre to decide.
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