The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Prisoners serving life sentence released

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Saturday, Sep 19, 2009
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Prisoners serving life sentence released

Staff Reporter

- Photo: Lingaraj Panda

mighty relieved: Life convicts Hina Das (left) and Kalia Bisoi (centre) coming out of Circle Jail as they were set free for good conduct in Berhampur on Friday. Jailor Subash Chandra Bisoi (right) handing them over the grant from Prison Welfare Fund.

BERHAMPUR: Prisoners serving life sentences in different jails of south Orissa are being released as per the directive of the State Governor.

The Governor had taken this decision on the recommendations made by the State Sentence Review Board (SSRB). The senior superintendent of Berhampur circle jail, Bankim Charan Mohanty, who heads the jails in south Orissa said the Governor had approved the release of 45 convicts, including murderers, from various jails in the State . Out of them 12 were from jails in south Orissa.

Around 60 cases of prisoners serving life sentences, who had served more than 14 years in prison, had been placed before the SSRB for consideration. Major criteria for the choice of convicts were their conduct and reformation during confinement. The SSRB did not recommend release of any convict involved in double murder or crimes extreme heinous in nature, Mr. Mohanty said.

In south Orissa, five life sentence serving convicts were released from the Koraput jail, three were released from the Phulbani jail in Kandhamal district, and two each were released from Bhanjanagar jail and Berhampur circle jail in Ganjam district.

All released prisoners were given Rs. 5,000 each from the Prisoners’ Welfare Fund.

The two convicts who came out of the Berhampur circle jail on Friday to experience a fresh lease of freedom were Hina Das and Kalia Bisoi. They had entered the jail during their youth after getting convicted in murder cases.

Youthfulness had vanished from them to be replaced by maturity of repentance as they had reached 50 years of age. Both these convicts from Ganjam district had committed murder due to land tussles.

Hina was from Kurtulu village and Kalia was from Siddhanai. Both of them were still repentant of their past deed. “Through our good conduct in jail I wanted to prove that I was repentant for my misdeed,” Hina said.

Kalia had a word of caution for the ‘hot blooded’ youth. According to him anger makes a person forget the conscience due to which one commits gruesome acts like murder.

Both of them felt ‘life’ is much more valuable than any tussle or rivalry.

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