TN guv ordered release of 3 convicts after due process, says Raj Bhavan
Chennai: Amid some criticism of the Governor approving the AIADMK Government's recommendation for the release of the three party functionaries serving life term for the death of three college girls in the Salem bus burning incident, the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday put out a statement explaining the circumstances and the legal factors that guided Governor Banwarilal Purohit to clear the release of the three convicts after initially returning the files without approval to the Government.
The three men --A Nedunchezhian, G Ravindran and C Muniappan -- were released Monday from the Vellore Central Prison in commemoration of the birth centenary celebrations of late Chief Minister and ruling AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran. They were serving life sentence after the Supreme Court commuted their death sentence for setting ablaze a bus in Dharmapuri that killed three women students of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 2000 during the AIADMK protests against the conviction of Jayalalithaa in a corruption case.
In a detailed statement, the Raj Bhavan explained that the Governor ordered their premature release now under Art 161 of the Constitution-which deals with his powers to pardon-only after getting the state government to correct an earlier request for their release sent in a huge bunch of 1627 life convicts for premature release. The Governor told the government he needed to examine each case and not deal with them en masse.
And even after the government sent the cases in individual files, the Governor sent back these three cases (bus-burning) but then, the Advocate General, the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary met the Governor (Oct 31) "and explained the details of the case and highlighted the point that the three life convicts had no intention to kill and that they set fire to the bus in a state of mob frenzy." Upon this, the Governor asked the AG to give his legal opinion along with the observations of the Supreme Court" while commuting their death sentence to life term (in order dated 11.03, 2016).
The AG in his 'opinion' recorded that the SC in its order had observed that the "acts attributed to the accused/review petitioners leading to the death of the three innocent girl students of the University were committed in the course of a mob frenzy which started with destruction of public property. The intent of the mob including the accused review petitioners, all along, was to cause damage to public property in order to show their resentment and protest against the conviction of the political leader in question. The victims were unknown persons; there was no premeditation or planning and all that had occurred had so occurred in the flash of moment."
The Raj Bhavan statement said the AG had opined that the cases of the three live convicts fell within the guidelines laid down by the Government for release of the prisoners on the occasions of MGR Centenary Celebrations and that the AG's opinion was "accepted by the Government and the file was again re-circulated for orders with the approval of the Home Secretary, Law Secretary, Chief Secretary, Law Minister and Chief Minister with the recommendation that the three life convicts should be released prematurely as already proposed"
And so the Governor ordered their premature release using his powers under Art 161 as he was "satisfied that the three life convicts will be absorbed by the local society without any disturbance and based on the grounds that the Supreme Court had observed that the deaths had taken place in a state of mob frenzy and taking into account the fact that the three life convicts have been in prison for 13 years", said the Raj Bhavan release.
But still, two big questions would haunt the Bhavan-how was the Supreme Court observation in commuting death sentence to life term (which could mean imprisonment until death) be stretched to the leniency in premature release in just 13 years after the brutal deaths, and what about the wounds of the grieving families of those three innocent women students that are now reopened by this 'kindness' pushed through by the government with great vigour? As it turned out, the three 'lucky' prisoners got 'double-gain' in just two years-from death to life and now out to freedom!
