Thiruvananthapuram: A total of 2,262 convicts – almost half of the total prison population in Kerala - including those involved in political killings are all set to walk free soon following a move by the state government to release them for good conduct.
Director general of police (prisons) has submitted his recommendations to the home department, it is learnt.
Such an unusual mass remission is being planned as a gesture to mark ‘Vajra Keralam’ – the diamond jubilee of the formation of the state.
A three-member committee has been appointed to review the list of prisoners with good conduct submitted by the Jail DGP before forwarding it to the government to take the final call.
The move has raised suspicion whether the hidden agenda behind the mass remission was the premature release of partymen convicted of political murders and violence.
The home department is making arrangements to free all prisoners excluding contract killers, bootleggers, foreign nationals and those who serve prison term on charges of: offenses related to communal incidents, on charges of murdering government officials including jail personnel, sexual abuse of women and children, violence against senior citizen, and those who were punished by courts outside the state.
The committee, comprising additional secretary (home) Sheela Rani, law department joint secretary P. Suresh Kumar, and DIG of prisons, North Zone, B. Pradeep, will review the proposals case by case and submit its recommendations to the cabinet and thereafter, they will be placed before the governor for clearance.
The committee has been directed to submit the final list of prisoners to be released to the government in a week’s time.
Two months ago, the government had transferred several officials, including superintendents, from the central jails in Poojappura, Kannur and Viyyur, that house almost the entire population of state’s political murder convicts. It is alleged that they were replaced by those in party’s good books, and the list of prisoners with ‘good conduct’ was prepared after they took over. It is alleged that names of several partymen were squeezed into the proposed list.
Many CPM leaders were included in prison advisory committees, including the one at the Kannur central jail, when they were reconstituted by the LDF government.
The mass transfer of the jail officials appointed by the previous UDF government and the overhaul of the advisory committees were undertaken to ensure smooth premature release of the partymen serving prison term, it is alleged.
Due to the Supreme Court ruling that a sentence of imprisonment for life means a sentence for the entire life of the prisoner, life-convicts were not considered for remission.