The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Two more seek premature release

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Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Two more seek premature release

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Two more accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case – S. Jayakumar and Robert Payas alias Kumaralingam – have moved the Madras High Court seeking premature release from prison.

Nalini, another accused in the case, had petitioned the High Court for premature release. The convicts, both Sri Lankans, serving life terms, have sought to quash the order of the Advisory Board for Premature Release of Life Convicts dated December 28, 2006, which rejected their plea for premature release.

Justice A. Kulasekaran, before whom the case came up for hearing, has ordered two weeks notice to the Home Secretary, and the Superintendent of Vellore Central Prison on petitions.

The petitioners contended that they had completed 17 years in prison and were now put in solitary confinement violating a Supreme Court order.

They alleged that that the board failed to act in accordance with Rules 339 and 340 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules, which speak of premature release. The board was not properly constituted and there had been considerable delay in the members including the District Collector submitting their reports, they contended.

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