KOCHI: The State Home Department, in an affidavit submitted before the Kerala High Court on Tuesday, said that its decision against the premature release of Melvin Padua is strictly in accordance with law and is unassailable.
The department made the submission on a petition filed by his wife Beatrice Melvin Padua seeking a directive to call for the records relating to the release of life convicts.The government denied the allegation that Melvin Padua was harassed by transferring him from one jail to another. "The allegation raised by the petitioner was contrary to facts and baseless, the affidavit by R S Raja Gopal, Under Secretary of Home Department, said.
"The jail authorities never denied an opportunity to the prisoner to go on parole.
One of the criteria fixed by the government for the premature release of prisoners who have completed an imprisonment of 10 years with remission was that the prisoners must be those who were involved in death and premeditated murder of women and children and persons above 65 years. But case of Padua was one of premeditated murder of a woman 'for gain'," the affidavit said.
Melvin Padua was sentenced to life term for murdering 23-year-old Celinamma inside the toilet of the Jayanthi Janatha Express on December 1994 while travelling from Bombay to Changanassery.