Supreme Court to hear plea of officer's widow against release of Anand Mohan

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear on May 8 a petition filed by slain IAS officer G Krishnaiah's widow challenging a recent decision of the Bihar government to release life convict Anand Mohan, who she said was ineligible for remission as his death sentence was commuted to life term by constitutional courts.
A bench of the CJI and Justice JB Pardiwala agreed to hear the writ petition of T Umadevi Krishnaiah, whose counsel Tanya Shree argued that since Mohan was sentenced to death by the trial court, which was commuted to life sentence by the Patna HC and the SC, he was ineligible for remission and release from prison.
In her petition filed before the Supreme Court challenging the release of life convict Anand Mohan in the murder case of IAS officer G Krishnaiah, the ex-DM's widow said, "In the present case, the convict is a politically influential person and has committed the murder of G Krishnaiah, a serving IAS officer, while himself being an MLA. He enjoys political support and has several criminal cases pending against him. He was sentenced to death on October 5, 2007, by the trial court for Krishnaiah's murder. On appeal, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the HC on December 10, 2008, and it was confirmed by SC on July 10, 2012."
She added that life term given to a convict as a substitute for death sentence must be viewed differently and segregated from the life imprisonment given as the punishment of first choice. "Life imprisonment when awarded as a substitute for death penalty has to be carried out strictly as directed by the court and would be beyond application of remission," she argued.
"Imprisonment for life means full natural course of life and can't be mechanically interpreted to be 14 years in jail. It means that the imprisonment lasts until the last breath of the convict. Therefore, the grant of remission by the Bihar government by its April 24 order is in the teeth of judgments of the SC," she said.