Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has refused to comment on the reports that TP murder convict P. K. Kunhananthan will be granted remission. “A decision on this will be taken only after examining the legal side. There is neither political interference nor political discrimination in granting parole,” he told the Assembly on Friday. He was replying to the notice for an adjournment motion given by Mr Sunny Joseph (Congress) on the issue. The state government had included him in the list of prisoners above 70 years of age who would be given parole. Mr Vijayan did not take the name of Kunhananthan in his reply even once.
The Opposition staged a walkout protesting against the government's move to commute the sentence of Kunhananthan after Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan denied permission for the motion. During the discussions, the Opposition protested against Law Minister A.K. Balan for calling a Congress legislator as 'Nee' (not a respectable term in Malayalam). Following the protest, he withdrew the remark. Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala asked what was the message the government was trying to give by commuting the sentence of a murder convict.
Mr Kunhananthan was granted 217 days of parole in over two years, Mr Chennithala said. The UDF would pursue legal course if the government went ahead with its 'move' violating the constitutional provisions and earlier court verdicts in similar cases. Kunhananthan had taken part in various party programmes during the paroles violating norms, Mr Chennithala alleged. Besides Kunhananthan, all the accused in the political murder case were given 'wellness treatment' inside the prison by the LDF government, he said. “Kunhananthan is a close friend of the chief minister who is doing a favour to him because of that,” said Mr Chennithala.
