Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF government on Thursday made conflicting statements in the Assembly regarding its alleged attempts to prematurely release convicts involved in the killing of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) founder and leader T P Chandrasekharan. On the one hand the Opposition charge that T P murder convicts were sought to be illegally released was termed "baseless". But on the other, the government announced the suspension of three officials - joint superintendent K S Sreejith, who held the charge of Kannur Central Jail Superintendent; assistant superintendent (grade-I) P G Arun and assistant prison officer Gopi Raghunath - responsible for including the names of T P murder convicts in the list of convicts to be granted remission.
The government response to the issue came as reply to a Submission moved by Opposition Leader V D Satheesan. On June 25, Speaker A N Shamseer had refused to take up the issue as an adjournment motion. The Opposition brought back the issue to the Assembly through Satheesan's Submission. Satheesan said it was not three, as was till now believed, but four convicts involved in T P's murder that the Pinarayi government attempted to free. Trouser Manojan's name is also included in the Jail Superintendent's list, he said. T K Rajeesh, Mohammad Shafi and Annan Sijith are the names already known.
Curiously, the official stand was articulated not by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who should have given the reply as the home minister, but by excise minister M B Rajesh. Pinarayi kept away from the House on the day.
Dismissing the charges and then suspending officials was not the only inconsistency spotted in the government's stand. Yet another dissonance in the government's stated position and reality was pointed out by the Opposition Leader. It seemed like the government had fully accepted the irregularity. Rajesh made it unequivocally clear that undeserving names had indeed crept into the jail superintendent's list. He also said that there was a High Court order that specifically stated that those convicted in the murder of T P Chandrasekharan should not be granted any kind of relaxation before 20 years. He also emphatically ruled out illegal remission for any convict. As demonstration of the government's intent, he referred to a letter the additional chief secretary (home) wrote to the Jail DGP on June 3 asking him to prepare a new list by weeding out undeserving names and strictly adhering to guidelines.
It was this letter that the Opposition Leader used to mock at the government's sincerity. "You say that the additional chief secretary (home) had written to the Jail DGP on June 3 to draw up a new list after taking out the names of T P killers. The additional CS is the highest authority of the police. And still, why was K K Rema's statement taken by the police on June 21, 22 and 26," Satheesan said.
As part of remission procedures, the police has to mandatorily take the statements of the family of the victim. Three police stations (Kolavallur, Panur and Chokli), under which the convicts have their permanent address, had either called up Rema or met her in person and taken her statement. "If as you say you have no intention of releasing these convicts, why was Rema's statement taken even after the additional chief secretary had asked for a new list," Satheesan said. "The government is still trying to find ways to release these killers," he said.
The Opposition Leader made two other points to argue that there was a conspiracy to prematurely release the convicts. One, Satheesan said a 2018 government order was tweaked in 2022 to favour the T P murder convicts. The 2018 order, issued after Supreme Court asked the government to draw up guidelines for granting remission for convicts, had said that those involved in political killings should not be given remission for 14 years. The 2022 order took out this clause.
Two, Satheesan wanted to know on what basis did the government, through the 2022 order, strike down Section 78(2) Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Act, 2010. This section states that all kinds of parole, remission and leave granted to the prisoners should not exceed one-third of the sentence. "The T P murder convicts were always on parole and had long exhausted their parole limits. It was to remove this hurdle for these criminals that a provision passed by the Assembly was made non-applicable through a government order. Can a law passed by this House be conveniently ignored like this," Satheesan said. Minister Rajesh said that the issues raised by the Opposition Leader was too technical and, therefore, would require more time to answer.