Plea seeks release of Coimbatore serial blasts case convict

When the Habeas Corpus petition filed by the daughter of convict S A Basha came up, the division bench, comprising Justices S Nagamuthu and Anita Sumanth, adjourned the hearing till first week of June.

The petitioner submitted that her father was arrested in 1991 at Coimbatore in connection with a murder case and booked under various sections of IPC, including 302, and remanded in judicial custody. The lower court later awarded him life imprisonment. An appeal filed against the trial court order was also dismissed by the High Court, she said. 

In 1998, her father was arrested again in connection with the serial bomb blasts in that city, following which the Sessions Court, conducting exclusive trial of the case, in August 2007 convicted and sentenced him to life term, she submitted. 

Thecourt had ordered the sentence to run concurrently with the previous jail term, the petitioner pointed out. 

Mubeena said her father was eligible to be considered under the Tamil Nadu government's November 10, 1994 scheme of premature release of life convicts since he has already completed more than 22 years of actual imprisonment. 

Citing a July 29, 2011 Government order, she claimed life convicts who had completed 20 years of actual imprisonment were also released by the state government as per Article 161 of the Constitution (power of Governor to grant pardons etc., and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases) 

The petitioner said she had made arepresentation in March 23 this yearto the state government to consider her father's case for premature release under the scheme, but to no avail.