Date:07/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/07/stories/2008050760581700.htm

Front Page

New twist to Priyanka-Nalini meeting issue

Special Correspondent

RTI applicant seeks copies of registers

Which reply is correct, RTI applicant asks jail superintendent
“If visit is not registered, the jail official should give the reason for it”

CHENNAI: The controversy over the meeting between Priyanka Vadra, daughter of Rajiv Gandhi, and Nalini, life convict in the former Prime Minister’s assassination case, at the special prison for women in Vellore has taken a new turn with an applicant, under the Right to Information Act, seeking copies of the main gate registers in which Ms. Vadra’s visit could have been recorded.

Initially, in her reply to the applicant — D. Rajkumar of Anna Nagar in Chennai — prison Superintendent Rajasoundari said no person visited Nalini either on March 14 or 19. Following this, Mr. Rajkumar moved the State Information Commission seeking an enquiry against the jail official for providing false information.

The jail Superintendent also sent another reply to the applicant saying that the two met on March 19. This was in accordance with the prison rules. She said that if details of the meeting were required, Mr. Rajkumar could meet Nalini and get them, provided she was willing to meet him.

Mr. Rajkumar has now applied again under the RTI Act, asking the Superintendent which of her replies was correct. When the meeting was confirmed, as per the prison rules, Ms. Vadra’s entry and exit should have been recorded in the main gate register numbers 24 and 25. If the entries were correct, the Superintendent should have affixed her signature against them. He sought copies of the relevant records. If her visit was not registered, the jail official should give the reason for it.

As Public Information Officer, the Superintendent should give full details of the meeting as sought by him earlier, he said.