Rajiv Gandhi’s killer attends father’s funeral

CHENNAI: Nalini Sriharan, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and jailed at Vellore Central Prison for the past 25 years, used her 12-hour parole to attend the funeral of her father, P Sankaranarayanan, in Chennai on Wednesday.Nalini arrived at the residence of her brother, S Ravi, a DMK member, on Ellayamman Koil Street in Kottupuram, Chennai, around 9.45am. A large posse of police personnel that accompanied her whisked her away to the thirdfloor apartment and kept her away from the public and the media for most of the day.The city police had beefed up security at Ravi’s residence after Sankaranarayanan, 91, died of a heart attack on Tuesday night. Nalini spoke briefly to reporters before policewomen escorted her back to a van that took her to Vellore, 130km from Chennai, where she had to return before her parole ended at 6pm.Although Supreme Court has ruled out the possibility of releasing convicts in the Rajiv assassination case, Nalini said she is confident that the authorities will free her.