CHENNAI: The State on Thursday informed the Madras HC that there are no provisions as per law for Nalini Sriharan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to make video calls to Sri Lanka.
“There is no provision either in the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules or in government orders to allow a prisoner to make video calls or even voice calls to any person in foreign country,” director general of Tamil Nadu prisons Jainath Singh said.
The plea pertains to S Padma, Nalini’s mother seeking to permit her daughter and her husband Sriharan alias Murugan to make video calls to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka and sister-in-law in London for at least 10 minutes daily. The plea also said that Murugan’s father died on April 27 and he was not permitted to join the final rites through a video call. In the submission made by the senior police official it also said that since offence committed by life convicts had international ramification and given their overseas contacts with banned outfits, there was no guarantee that convicts would use this facility for personal, family affair.
Before a prisoner is allowed to make such calls, the authorities must verify the bona fides of caller on the other end so that regulations are not jeopardised. “In this case, we cannot verify the genuineness of the caller and cannot take action if they violate any regulations,” the officer added. Recording submissions, a division bench of Justice MM Sundresh and PT Asha adjourned the hearing.