In '99, SC had rejected all leniency pleas for Nalini

NEW DELHI: Priyanka, who recently met Nalini at Vellore prison, has come to terms with feelings of anger, violence and hatred which she had been battling since the assassination of her father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, 17 years ago. But the Supreme Court could not persuade itself in 1999 to exercise leniency and award a life sentence to Nalini, convinced as it was about her role in the conspiracy to kill Rajiv. It had debated hard, at times emotionally, about her being a woman and mother of a young girl, but finally said that a death sentence was the most appropriate punishment for her. The death penalty has since been commuted to life sentence due to the efforts of Sonia Gandhi. A bench of three judges - Justices K T Thomas, D P Wadhwa and S S M Quadri - did not have an iota of doubt that Nalini was an intrinsic part of the LTTE master-minded plot to kill Rajiv, the execution of which saw 15 others lose their lives. Among those 15 were 9 police personnel and a child - Kokilavani - who was seen by witnesses rehearsing a poem composed in praise of Rajiv minutes before his arrival at the Sriperambudur election rally. The little girl and her mother perished when the human bomb "Dhanu" detonated herself. Justice Wadhwa and Justice Quadri, after lengthy discussions weighing the mitigating circumstance, were unanimous in their decision that Nalini deserved death and death alone. Justice Thomas, in his minority view, had said that she should be given life imprisonment. Seeking leniency, Nalini's counsel N Natarajan pleaded that she got involved in the conspiracy only to please Murugan and to be close to him, as he was her lover. "Nalini did not contribute to the conspiracy but merely acted as a cover as she was only obeying the role assigned to her by Sivarasan (the one-eyed jack who consumed a cyanide pill on being cornered by the STF) whom Murugan had introduced to her as his boss," he had said. Taking the arguments to an emotional level, Natarajan said: "Nalini is a chastened woman and has regretted the crime. She was not a menace to society. She has a girl child whose future had to be kept in mind." Lastly, he said in India no woman had been hanged since independence and hence, she should be spared the extreme punishment. Point-by-point, Justice Wadhwa rejected the arguments. "It is not that Nalini did not understand the nature of the crime and her participation. She was a willing party to the crime. We have to see both the crime and the criminal," he said. "Nalini, in her association with Murugan and others, developed great hatred towards Rajiv Gandhi and wanted revenge. Merely because Nalini is a woman and a mother of the child, who was born while she was in custody, cannot be the ground not to award the extreme penalty to her," Justice Wadhwa said. "When we think of the crime, we find that along with Rajiv Gandhi 15 others, including personal security officer to Gandhi P K Gupta and Kokilavani, also lost their lives. What about their families, one may ask," was the poser from Justice Wadhwa to Nalini's counsel. Justice Quadri, who held the decisive card after Justice Thomas and Justice Wadhwa were divided over award of death sentence to Nalini, appeared torn between emotion and the duty of a judge. "Indeed the dilemma whether sentence of death should be pronounced upon a woman has been troubling my mind for a considerable time. Surely in our culture, a woman has to be treated with beneficence and kindness," he confessed. "But then in this case the person Dhanu who opted to become a human bomb was a woman. Subha, who gave moral support to sacrifice her life on the anvil of some ideology and to end up annihilating other lives, was also a woman," he said clarifying the issue factually. "It was not the case that Nalini was caught up in a sudden situation and became a mute comrade - the mind not towing the body. It was indeed the other way round. The part played by Nalini is a candid participation in the crime of conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi who was himself a young popular leader so much loved and respected by his fellow citizens and had been PM of India," Justice Quadri said. "Nalini, in spite of being an Indian citizen, joined the gang of conspirators and engaged herself in pursuit of common intention to commit crime only because she was infatuated by the love and affection developed for Murugan, and thus played her part in execution of the conspiracy which resulted in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and death of many police officers and innocent citizens including a small girl," he said and agreed with Justice Wadhwa that she be awarded death penalty as there was no room for leniency, kindness and beneficence for Nalini in this case. (dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com)
19 Apr 2008, 0257 hrs IST , Dhananjay Mahapatra , TNN
THE TIMES OF INDIA