The Hindu : Kerala News : When law takes its own course

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 20, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

When law takes its own course

Sangeeth Kurian

Velayudhan Thampi

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The real `punishment' for Velayudhan Thampi will begin only next month, when he will be released from the Central Jail in Poojappura. At 92, the convict has little to hope for. His family has reportedly disowned him after the court punished him, a few weeks ago, for stabbing his son to death.

Currently admitted at the Medical College Hospital after the jail authorities found him `too feeble' to serve the sentence, the old man's future, whatever is left, appears to be bleak. He requires assistance even to do his daily chores.

At the hospital, Thampi frequently complains of suffocation and wheezing and makes no secret of his preference for the `luxuries' of jail. "Here they serve you only kanji (gruel). In jail you can eat fish and meat," he said. He also expressed his desire to return home at the earliest though he said that none of his family members had called on him ever since he was convicted.

Thampi, a resident of Valiyasala, is arguably the oldest person in the State to be sentenced by a court. The court directed him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year and three months. However, as the convict had already been in jail for more than a year since the incident took place, the court ordered him to serve only the remaining period in prison.

The incident which led to the `rare' conviction occurred in March last. Thampi, who was in the habit of drinking in the company of his son, Krishnamoorthy, 55, a former employee of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, stabbed him to death with a knife following a drunken brawl inside the house. Though the victim was rushed to the hospital by his neighbours, he succumbed to injuries the next day.

Meanwhile, the police arrested Thampi from his house. He was reclining on a cot in the room after the attack. They also recovered the knife used for the assault. Washed and cleaned, it was hidden under his pillow.

Though Thampi was found guilty of committing the offence, Second Additional Sessions Judge K.P. Jyothindranath treated the act as `culpable homicide not amounting to murder' under section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) instead of section 302 of the IPC (murder with intention) as charged by the police. The decision was based on the inference that the convict resorted to the extreme step without any intention for murder and as an act of "private defence." The court in its judgment noted that the convict did not chase the victim during the attack and that the stab injury was inflicted on the "stomach which is not a vital part of the body." The testimony of his wife, however, was the clinching factor that led to Thampi's conviction.

While many legal experts hailed the verdict as a "good judgment," some expressed sympathies at the plight of an old man. S.S. Jeevan, additional public prosecutor who appeared on behalf of the prosecution, said the judgment reinforced the fact that all are equal before the law, irrespective of their age.

"This is also the minimum punishment given by a court in the State under section 304 Part II of IPC," said Clarence Miranda, senior lawyer and author of `Miranda on Criminal Major Acts.'

However, leading criminal lawyer Sasthamangalam Ajith felt that the judgment reflected the "saddest side" of the criminal justice system. "It is unfortunate that a person who is in the evening of his life has to while away his twilight years in prison," he said.

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