RTI plea reveals criminals to walk free in Kerala

Mohammed Nisham, a beedi baron, is undergoing a double life-term for murdering his security guard Chandrabose.

An RTI query filed by an online news portal reveals the names of the prisoners the government intended to release, using its discretionary powers, include the Hummer rage case accused Mohammed Nisham and 11 life convicts in the TP Chandrasekharan murder case.

Mohammed Nisham, a beedi baron, is undergoing a double life term for murdering his security guard Chandrabose. On January 2015, Nisham got into a fight with a security guard at around 3 am alleging that the guard was late to open the gate of the apartment complex. In a fit of anger, Nisham hit him and rammed his hummer into him. Nisham was sentenced for life imprisonment in 2016. After battling for life for 48 days at a hospital, Bose succumbed to his injuries on February 15, 2015.

The list prepared by the prisons department contains around names of 1,911 convicts which was forwarded to the government for special remission on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Kerala's formation.

However, Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had then assured the opposition, which had raised a hue and cry over the list, that hard-core criminals did not figure among the names proposed for remission of sentence. But the reply submitted by the prison department in response to an RTI has given the lie to Pinarayi's claims and given fresh ammunition to the opposition to accuse the government.

Former Home minister and congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that according to existing laws these convicts cannot be recommended for remission under the existing rules. He said, "I will take up all the legal action to stop these people from getting remission."

OneIndia News