The Madras High Court Bench here on Saturday held a special sitting to hear a writ petition filed by the sister of a convict in a criminal case seeking his release to attend their father’s funeral and passed an order permitting him to attend the rituals on the same day as well as on Sunday.
Justice D. Krishnakumar heard the case filed by Valli at the request of her counsel R. Venkatesan and directed the Superintendent of the Central Prison here to release her brother Ganesan alias Annamalai from 5.15 pm on Saturday till 5 p.m. on Sunday on condition that he should not go to any other place but for attending the funeral and the rituals attached to it.
After ascertaining through Government Advocate K.P. Krishna Doss that the petitioner’s father had indeed died and that her brother was allegedly involved in as may as 10 criminal cases, the judge rejected her plea to release him on parole for a week and held that two days would be sufficient to perform the rites.
The judge also recorded the submission that the petitioner’s brother was also convicted by a Sessions Court here in 2010 in a murder case. However, on appeal, the High Court had modified his conviction from Section 302 (murder) to 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code and commuted the sentence from life to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
In order to ensure that the convict does not flee in the guise of attending his father’s funeral, Mr. Justice Krishnakumar imposed a condition that necessary escort should be provided to him and that he should report before the Inspector of Police, South Gate Police Station in the city, at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
The judge also directed the High Court Registry to post the case on Tuesday for reporting compliance.
