Save my father: Murugan's daughter Harithra to Sonia

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Nineteen-year-old Harithra, daughter of death row convict Murugan, has written an emotional letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi appealing for clemency for her father in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

“I was too unfortunate to be born in a prison and to grow up without the care, affection and warmth of my parents,” Harithra, a college student in Britain, wrote to Mrs Gandhi.

The letter, the latest in a series of letters to Indian politicians, also describes Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination as “one of the most tragic and devastating moments of Indian history”.

“I have been dreaming all my life that one day I would have dinner with my parents and have my sleep in my father’s lap (sic). But everything is very uncertain without your compassion and clemency,” Harithra wrote.

“Save my father and get him back to me, you will be hailed as saviours,” she appealed. Mrs Gandhi was instrumental in saving the life of Nalini, Harithra’s mother who, too, had been condemned to death, and Harithra mentions this in her letter.