Author: S. Chandrasekhar
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 17, 2006
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=148&page=17
In a severe slap on the face of Kerala’s Home Minister and presiding perpetrator of CPM butchery on RSS cadres in Kannur, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the High Court of Kerala Division Bench consisting of judges J.B. Koshy and K. Padmanabhan Nair have severely indicted him for granting parole flouting all norms to seven CPM men who had murdered RSS men in Kannur. The Home Minister had ordered grant of parole despite objections from the Home Secretary and Jails DGP.
“What special powers does the Home Minister have to grant parole? From where has he got them? There is severe impropriety in the minister’s involvement in granting parole to prisoners. Neither the Travancore-Cochin Act nor the present Prison Act entitles the Home Minister to grant Parole”, the justices in their suo moto proceedings burst out.
The justices quashed the parole granted and restrained the state from granting parole to almost 200 CPM murderers of Kannur who are in jail for sentences pronounced for butchery of RSS cadres. The justices observed that pressing for parole of prisoners en masse ignoring the high power committee report and the vigilance SP’s observations is highly objectionable. The division bench further continued, “There has been an instance of mass parole applications being forwarded to Home Department from the CPM office. From the Jail Superintendent to the Home Minister, executives at different levels exercise the power to grant parole. This should be stopped. While those who have money and power secure parole, the deserving prisoners are denied it.”
This strong indictment by the Division Bench of the HC is enough for any self-respecting person to quit, but for Kodiyeri whose brutalised mind has been hardened, seeing the butchered and mutilated remanents of scores of RSS cadres, wailing parents, widowed wives and fatherless children, in Kannur. This is just a speck of dust on his shirt, to be flicked away.
The timely action by the judges saved Kerala.