A convict whose death sentence was commuted to life in a rape-cum-murder case has petitioned the Madras High Court for access to a computer and printer inside the prison in order to prepare an appeal to the Supreme Court for his premature release.
The Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and RMT Teekaa Raman the Additional Public Prosecutor R. Muniyapparaj was ordered to take notice on behalf of the Superintendent of the Central Prison at Puzha, returnable in four weeks.
The counsel for petitioners stated that his client, P. Veera Bharathi was an engineer who has been fighting for his acquittal since 1999. His only request now was for access to a computer inside the prison so that he could prepare documents needed to file an appeal with the Supreme Court against an order of 30/11/22 issued by Madurai Bench of the High Court.
The petitioner complained that the Superintendent denied him the access to a computer despite his request in December last year.
The petitioner in his affidavit stated that he and two other convicts of the rape-cum-murder case despite their consistent plea that they had not committed the crime were convicted by the Court. He was sentenced to death for murder and for seven years in prison for rape. Upon appeal to the High Court in August 2000, the court reduced to the sentence of death to imprisonment for life, which was later confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Following the order, the convict started filing a series of cases demanding his early release. On November 2021, a Division Bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and G. Jayachandran dismissed his last case on the grounds that “it was the State’s prerogative to consider premature release and that convicts could not seek to enforce it as a matter of right through courts of law.”
The petitioner intended to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court but insisted on using a computer and a printer inside his prison cell to prepare the documents.
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