Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Thursday suspended three prison officials including the Kannur Jail joint superintendent after names of three convicts in the TP Chandrasekharan murder case were included in the list of 188 prisoners for sentence remission.
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 were suspended following an order from the Chief Minister's Office.
Read More: TP murder rocks Assembly again. Government contradictions to the fore
The list of convicts picked for remission was mentioned in a letter written by the Kannur Jail Superintendent to city police commissioner on June 13. The commissioner was asked to submit all files, including probation report, related to these convicts. Among them were T P Chandrasekharan murder convicts T K Rajeesh, Mohammad Shafi and Annan Sijith.
Incidentally, these three were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by the Kerala High Court, which restricted their right to remission. Dismissing a petition by the convicts seeking to set aside the punishment awarded by the Kozhikode Additional Sessions Court, the High Court had indeed enhanced their sentence by the trial court.
Kerala Assembly Speaker A N Shamseer had on Tuesday refused permission to Vadakara MLA and TP Chandrasekharan's wife KK Rema to move an adjournment motion in the Assembly seeking a temporary suspension of proceedings to discuss the alleged LDF government move to release the three convicts. The Speaker denied the motion saying that allegation was unfounded and not urgent in nature.
Had the Speaker granted leave for the notice, the Assembly would have witnessed a direct confrontation between K K Rema and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan whom Rema considers the mastermind behind her husband's killing. Vijayan was the CPM state secretary when Chandrasekharan was killed by a hired gang on May 4, 2012.