File photo of Nalini Sriharan
The Madras High Court today quashed all proceedings by a lower court in Vellore against Rajiv Gandhi murder convict Nalini Sriharan for allegedly possessing a mobile phone in her cell inside the Vellore prison in April 2010.
Ms Nalini had then denied the police's claim of a mobile phone being seized from her cell and accused them of fabricating the case as she had sought pre-mature release from jail citing good behaviour.
In court, Ms Nalini had argued that according to prison rules officials can either punish inmates on their own or refer the case to the police. In her case she explained that jail officials had already taken action on her by withdrawing her A-Class facility in the jail, besides awarding other punishments. Hence, the legal proceedings, she claimed, would amount to abuse of the process of law.
Ms Nalini was originally awarded death sentence for her role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi but the sentence was later commuted to life following intervention by Sonia Gandhi, widow of the late former Prime Minister.