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Journalism of Courage
Rejecting Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy’s plea to implead him in the petition filed by Nalini Sriharan, convicted for her role in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, the Madras High Court, however, permitted him to present his submissions.
Nalini, lodged at the Vellore Central Prison, had filed a premature release petition after spending 17 years in prison as part of her life imprisonment sentence.
Swamy, a staunch anti-LTTE campaigner, had alleged that the Centre and state Government would “collude with Nalini” to facilitate her early release and requested the court to implead him in the case. The state Government as well as Nalini’s counsel, stating that Swamy had no “locus standi” and that he could not be made party merely based on his apprehensions, opposed this.
Justice S Nagamuthu on Tuesday said, “the apprehensions expressed by the petitioner are baseless, unwarranted and deserved to be rejected” and denied to permit him to be a party. However, the Justice added that he could make his submissions in the court as an intervenor, though not a party to the case.
