COIMBATORE: Two convicts sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for murder were released from the Coimbatore central prison on Sunday evening, after Governor R N Ravi cleared their clemency petition.
According to sources Perumal and Andiyappan, who were arrested along with the forest brigand Veerappan’s elder brother Koosa Mathaiyan, have served 32 years in jail.
Mathaiyan, Perumal and Andiyappan were convicted for the murder of three persons, including forest ranger Chidambaram, at Kongugurupalayam in 1987. They surrendered in 1991, and in 1997, Erode district sessions court sentenced them to life imprisonment. The main accused in the case, Veerappan, was shot dead by a special task force of Tamil Nadu police in an encounter in 2004.
In October 2017, the three filed mercy petition under Section 433(A) of CrPC. They sought clemency on the grounds that have aged (all are above 70-years), and had spent more than 30 years of imprisonment. The State government referred the petition to the governor in September 2021, under section 438 of CRPC. Mathaiyan died of age-related illness at Salem GH in May this year.
On Friday, Governor Ravi granted them clemency considering their good conduct during incarceration, and the order was served to officials in the Coimbatore central prison where Perumal and Andiyappan were detained.
Perumal hails from Gobinatham in Karanataka. After the incident, their family has scattered allegedly due to pressure from Karnataka police. He is not married, and has an elder sister who lives at Guruvareddiyur in Erode. Sources said Perumal has no support to earn a livelihood. Andiyappan is also from Gobinatham. He has wife and children who are living at Nayambadi near Kolathur in Salem.