M. Ganesh, 62, a retired havildar from the Indian Army, looked up at the open sky for a few seconds and took a deep breath as soon as his name was read out by the prison official. Convicted for life in a murder case in 2006, he had served 13 years in prison, before he was released from the Central Prison in Parappana Agrahara for good conduct, along with 78 others across the State, on Sunday.
Upon his release, Mr. Ganesh thanked the authorities for considering him for release and said he was a “reformed man.” He said his years in prison, including the ones at Mysuru Central Prison, had been fruitful; he had learnt ‘pranic’ healing, yoga, acupuncture techniques, numerology, and astrology from an expert who had visited the Mysuru prison. “I used these techniques to serve my fellow inmates, teaching them yoga and healing them of their body aches, pains and other discomforts,” he said. He said he would now use the knowledge to help the people in his home town of Kushalnagar, Kodagu.
Among the 79 prisoners released on Sunday, 28 were from Bengaluru. Vasanth Kumar, 34, was elated when he walked out of the Parappana Agrahara prison. Mr. Kumar, who comes from Hosapete, Ballari, was convicted of killing a woman he was in a relationship with, after her father got her married to another man from their community. He was 20 years old then. Mr. Kumar spent 14 years in jail, writing film scripts as a hobby. He is now looking forward to finding a job as a scriptwriter in the Kannada film industry.
Home Minister G. Parameshwara, who, along with senior officers of the Prisons Department, distributed the release orders to the convicts, said this was the third such release since December last. As many as 109 convicts were released early for good conduct and reformation in December 2017, while 98 followed in March this year.
“A provisional list of 58 convicts has been drawn up, and the Prisons Department has recommended their early release on Gandhi Jayanti,” said Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons) N.S. Megharikh.
Others released
On the day, 18 prisoners were released from Mysuru, eight from Belagavi, 14 from Kalaburagi, five from Ballari, four from Vijayapura, and two from Dharwad. All were men. Many women prisoners, unhappy with their applications allegedly not being given the same weightage, met with the Home Minister and complained about it.
The released convicts were counselled according to the prison manual on their joining the mainstream, and financial assistance was promised if they wanted to start a business. The convicts’ earnings during their time in prison have been deposited with their Jan Dhan accounts, officials said.
DIG Prisons H.S. Revanna said a sum of ₹3 crore has been invested in improving the infrastructure in central and district prisons to enable prisoners to make phone calls to their family members.