By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Kerala government Saturday released 104 prisoners who have completed 14 or more years in prison.
State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told IANS the list of prisoners being released has been cleared by Kerala Governor R.L. Bhatia.
“According to the rules, the state government has the powers to release (prisoners). We did it after K.P. Somarajan, Jail director general, submitted a detailed report of all those who served 14 years or more in prison,” said Balakrishnan.
Somarajan submitted a list of 116 people who had served more than 14 years in prison. It was forwarded to the governor and after scrutiny, the names of 12 prisoners were deleted.
Somarajan said each prisoner’s nature of crime and the behaviour while in prison was taken into account when the list was prepared.
“Cases like robbery, murder of women and such heinous cases were not considered while preparing the list of prisoners who had completed 14 years or more,” said Somarajan.
On Saturday 47 prisoners from Kannur, 49 from two jails in Thiruvananthapuram, five from Viyur and three from Cheemeni jails were being set free.
“A prisoner who is set free Saturday had completed 26 years. For long the demand has been there to release prisoners who have completed 14 years or more from several rights organisations. We acted well within the rules,” added Balakrishnan.
During the regime of E.K. Nayanar led Left government, 400 prisoners who had served more than 14 years were set free.