Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 19, 2006
URL: http://www.haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx?PageID=1882&SKIN=K
Four months into power, the CPI(M)-led Left
Democratic Front (LDF) Government in Kerala has launched in right earnest
a devious ploy to save Marxist comrades involved in various criminal cases
from the clutches of the law. Legal experts say that the paroles surreptitiously
awarded to several CPI(M) activists jailed in different criminal cases bear
testimony to this fact.
There is a definite attempt by the LDF Government
to use the offices of the Cabinet to grant parole to Marxist activists jailed
in criminal cases, say these experts. They cite the Kerala High Court's observation
in a case relating to the parole of Pius, a native of Vaduthala in Ernakulam,
and a CPI(M) activist, who was found guilty of committing a political murder
and had been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment. The court has now directed
the Government to produce the entire file relating to the grant of parole
to the life-time convict.
The Division Bench has directed the Government
to produce the judgement against Pius, with the exact number of days he has
undergone imprisonment and the total number of days he has been on parole,
including emergency leave and study leave. Legal experts point out that this
is one among many such cases.
The High Court, hearing a case relating to
the granting of parole to political prisoners, who are CPI(M) cadre, has granted
time to the State Government to file a detailed statement regarding the power
of the Home Minister and the Cabinet to set free life-term convicts.
The Division Bench observed that the provision
in the Kerala Prisons Rule enabling the Home Minister and the Cabinet to grant
parole to convicts is prima facie beyond the legislative competence of the
State Government. The court has noted that there is no provision in the Prisons
Act enabling the State Government to exercise such a power.
Kerala has not effected any amendment in the
Act and therefore the rule, which is contradictory to the parent Act, is prima
facie unsustainable.
It is in this context, Sasi, father of Anu
PS, one of the three ABVP activists killed by SFI and CPI(M) activists 10
years ago in Parumala, Pathanamathitta district express hopelessness as far
as getting justice is concerned. Sasi's hopelessness is shared by many in
Kerala.
Three students belonging to the ABVP, Kim
Karunakaran, Anu PS and Sujith, were brutally chased and drowned to death
in river Pampa on September 17, 1996. Talking to The Pioneer, Sasi said, "Both
the Sessions Court and the High Court have rejected our appeals. We are left
with no hope now."
The Parumala Balidana Smrithi Yatra, organised
by the ABVP activists to observe the martyrdom of the three students of Travancore
Devaswom Pampa College, Parumala, killed allegedly by CPI(M) and SFI activists,
concluded on Tuesday, but the wait by the families of the murdered students
for justice is continuing.
The yatra, which covered the two districts
of Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha, and saw mourning by the activists concluded
in Parumala-Mannar town. ABVP All-India general secretary KN Raghunandan and
State secretary VP Rajivan addressed the gathering at the conclusion of the
yatra.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajivan said that
the brutal killing of the three students at Parumala was a moving testimony
to Guruji Golwalkar's observation that "communism as an ideology is incomplete
and dangerous in practice."
It has been 10 years since the Parumala incident
that shook the conscience of the Kerala society took place.
An ABVP leader pointed to an observation in
the sessions court judgement that '...in the said circumstances, the court
can do nothing but shed tears and join the grief of the bereaved families'
in a clear reference to the inadequacy of investigations held into the case.
Legal experts say that the public prosecutors
had 'failed' in successfully presenting the case before the court and that
the State was least interested in the case. There were hundreds of people
present on the spot when the conflict took place and the three students were
forced to jump into the swollen river, said a Parumala resident. They had
also seen how they were pelted with bricks and stones when the students floated
on the water, he added. "But, somehow, the prosecutors failed to present
the case properly," he said.