A caricature of Nalini

Chennai, Sept. 18: Nalini, who is serving a life sentence for her role in Rajiv Gandhi?s assassination, got a few hours off from prison to attend her brother?s wedding.

P.S. Packiyanathan, who was also convicted in the assassination case and has served his term, yesterday tied the knot with Malarvizhi at a south Chennai auditorium. Only close friends and family were present.

On rationalist icon Periyar?s 126th birth anniversary, the couple had a simple ?self-respect wedding? advocated by the rationalist leader to counter ?Vedic, Sanskritised weddings?.

The event would have gone unnoticed but for the presence of the groom?s sister, released for a few hours on parole from the Vellore special prison for women and brought to the venue amid tight security. Nalini, who had been handed the death penalty that was later commuted to life imprisonment, looked worried and emaciated in photographs that appeared in the local media.

After the wedding, she spent some time with her family and was taken back in the afternoon.

Getting wind of Nalini?s visit, some Tamil press photographers had tried to take her pictures but her family members stepped in. The camera of at least one photographer broke as it was pushed off his hand.

Packiyanathan used to run a printing press in the city when he was arrested in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in 1991 by a CBI special team.