Orders reserved on pleas challenging premature release of Melavalavu massacre convicts

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday reserved its orders on a batch of petitions filed against the premature release of 13 convicts in the Melavalavu massacre case in Madurai, in which six persons belonging to scheduled caste were hacked to death by dominant caste members on June 30, 1997.

The petitions were filed in 2019 and 2020 by the family members of the victims, a Madurai-based advocate P Rathinam and also VCK cadre Balachandra Bose alias Ulaganambi from Dindigul. They requested the court to quash the GOs passed by the state government on November 8, 2019, for the premature release of the 13 convicts.

The victims' kin claimed in their petition that they were not given an opportunity to express their objection against the convicts' premature release. The gravity of the offence and its effect on society was also not considered, they added. Their counsel also pointed out that one of the 13 convicts, S Ramar, was booked in a double murder case in 1991 and had involved in the Melavalavu massacre while he was out on bail. It is not known whether the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the premature release of prisoners were considered by the government while taking the decision, he said.

However, the senior counsels representing the state government and the convicts argued that there was no law and order problem in Melavalavu village when three other life convicts in the same case were granted remission in 2008. They wanted the court to dismiss the petitions. A Bench of justices G Jayachandran and Sunder Mohan, who heard the petitions, reserved their judgment.