Kripesh and Sarathlal
A bench of Justice G Gireesh dismissed the petition filed by the mothers of Gijin and Subeesh, convicts in the 2019 case, in which Kripesh and Sarathlal, two Youth Congress workers, were killed by a team armed with weapons at Kannadippara near Periya. It was also stated that the ordinary leave of the petitioners’ sons was kept in abeyance due to the fragile and tense law-and-order situation within the limits of Bekal police station following the release of some of the co-convicts in the Periya double murder case. Noting these facts, the court observed that the decision to defer the release of the petitioners’ sons on ordinary leave due to law-and-order concerns affecting the safety and security of the prisoners, as well as public tranquillity and the maintenance of law and order, could not be termed a wilful violation of the court’s directive.
Accordingly, the bench dismissed the contempt petition.
Previously, while granting ordinary leave to the convicts, the court had lifted two conditions imposed by the jail authorities, including restricting their entry within the limits of Bekal police station and barring the release on leave of more than one of the convicts at a time.
However, the petitioners’ case was that although the court had granted ordinary leave to the convicts in its judgment on March 13, the jail authorities denied subsequent ordinary leave to their sons and thereby wilfully violated the court’s directions. Kochi: The high court has dismissed a contempt petition against the director general of prisons and correctional services and the Kannur Central Prison superintendent, filed by the mothers of two convicts in the Periya double murder case, alleging that they wilfully violated the court’s directive to grant ordinary leave (parole) to their sons. In reply, the jail authorities submitted that the action was necessitated solely by subsequent developments involving threats to the safety of the prisoners and the law-and-order situation.