THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the Supreme Court commuted Govindachamy’s death sentence to life imprisonment, he will have to remain in jail for his entire life. The SC had earlier made it clear that a convict undergoing life imprisonment will be in custody for an indeterminate period. To reduce the period of incarceration, a specific order under Section 432 of the CrPC will have to be passed by the appropriate government.
However the reduced period cannot be less than 14 years as per Section 433 A of the CrPC. Since the prosecution is seeking capital punishment in Govindachamy’s case there is absolutely no chance of the government commuting life imprisonment to 14 years. The prosecution is now set to file a review petition with the available material within the specific time period of 30 days. It will plead for restoring capital punishment. Govindachamy was sentenced to death on November 11, 2011 in the Soumya case. Apart from Soumya case, the court had earlier sentenced him to seven years and 10 months respectively in two different cases.
Salem First Class Magistrate court had sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment in April 24, 2014 in connection with the chain snatching case. On February 25, 2013 Kannur Magistrate court had sentenced him to 10 months imprisonment in a case pertaining to destruction of CCTV cameras inside the central jail. Govindachamy who is currently lodged in Block No 10 of Kannur Central jail along with nine others who have been sentenced to death in different cases, used to behave violently in the initial phase. He created ruckus inside the jail premises, threatened officials and fellow convicts.
He tried to scare officials by continuously staring at them and even used abusive language. Once he sat on a hunger strike demanding biryani in jail. But after the initial violent phase, he toned down considerably and started adhering to prison rules. During his sentence period only two persons used to visit him occasionally; his advocate B.A. Aloor and one of his relatives Murugan. Apart from the three cases, Govindachamy had been involved in many other crimes. A Tindivanam court convicted him of house breaking in 2004 and a Kadalur court in 2005. He was convicted of house robbery in Erode 2006 , in Tambaram and Thiruvallur in 2007.
