Murugan to be moved to hospital if fast continues

Chennai: As V. Sriharan alias Murugan, one of the life convicts in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, continued his fast to 'jeeva samadi' on second day on Saturday, jail officials here said that they may have to seek the help of medical team to stop his fast.

On Saturday apart from jail officials, Murugan's lawyer also tried to convince him to stop fast. Murugan, who has become more spiritual in the last few years, was not ready to withdraw his fast-unto-death plan.

Murugan had stopped taking food from Friday. He had submitted a petition on July 19 to the Vellore prison Superintendent saying that he would desist intake of food from August 18 to attain Jeevasamadi, a practice followed by sages in the past.

"If he continues the fast, we will have to move him to hospital. The decision to move him to hospital will be taken if his health conditions deteriorate," a senior jail official.

On Saturday, Murugan and Nalini should have met in the prison. But the meeting never happened as Murugan did not give the formal request. Nalini last month had approached the Madras High Court seeking six months parole to make arrangements for her daughter's marriage. The couple's daughter Haritha who was born in the prison is living in London.

Robert Payas, another convict in the same case, had appealed to Chief Minister on June 21 and sought permission to mercy kill himself as he would not be released from the prison.

So far, of the seven life convicts - Murugan, Santhan, AG Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini in the Rajiv assassination case, only Ravichandran and Nalini had gone out on emergency parole. Nalini came out on parole to attend her father's funeral, while Ravichandran got the court direction to visit his ailing mother. The other five convicts had never stepped out of the prison in the 26 years except when they were taken to the hospital.