Did Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meet her dad's assassin?

This is a question that a Chennai-based lawyer has reportedly sought to know as part of an application in court under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A report published in the Times of India said on Tuesday the lawyer D. Raj Kumar, claims that Priyanka Vadra met Nalini Sriharan, one of the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspiracy case, at Vellore prison last month. The applicant has asked for a response from the prison superintendent of the prison to his queries.

Nalini was one of the co-accused in the conspiracy case and was sentenced to death by the special court, though it was later commuted to life sentence. At that time, Nalini who was 33 and had a baby, reportedly got the support of Sonia Gandhi, who sought clemency for her on grounds of her motherhood.

The newspaper said their efforts to verify the event came to nought as the jail superintendent refused to discuss the matter. Times of India has quoted Nalini's mother to confirm the meeting as did two of Nalini's lawyers. The lawyers have told the paper quoting Nalini that Priyanka Vadra wanted to know why her father was assassinated despite being a good person.

They claimed that the meeting, which lasted about an hour, said preparations for the face-to-face began early in March with a visit to the jail by an intelligence official who asked Nalini whether she wanted to meet Priyanka. The meeting was thus arranged and Nalini was quoted as saying by the lawyers in the newspaper that she had even prepared some sweets for her visitor.

Giving details of the meeting, the newspaper said that Priyanka got Nalini to sit next to her and asked her several questions including the reasons for targetting the former Prime Minister and the modus operandi of the assassins. Nalini, who is the only surviving member amongst the five who purportedly planning the strike, admitted to being at the site in Sriperambudur but denied all knowledge of the plot.

Another related report in the Times of India said that Priyanka sought to know about the kingpin behind the attack and whether it was the handiwork of the LTTE. Nalini's lawyers claimed that she denied any knowledge of the plot and said she got involved only because the alleged mastermind Sivarasan (also known then as the one-eyed Jack) and the human bomb Dhanu and Murugan used to visit her house regularly.

She further claimed that even Murugan was not in the know of the plot which was a secret between Dhanu, Sivarasan and Shubha. The latter two were found dead in their house at Konankunte on the outskirts of Bangalore by the Special Investigation Team, who had tracked them and surrounded their hideout.