Date:12/02/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/02/12/stories/2005021204960500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Third plea for forgiveness

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 11. Sarala Devi, a teacher from Dachepally in Guntur district, continues to knock the doors of the Government to release her brother, P. Balaram Venkata Ganesh, who has spent over nine years serving a life sentence in the murder of former Congress MP, Magunta Subbarami Reddy. He was killed by naxalites of the People's War, of which Ganesh was the Guntur district secretary, a decade ago.

Ms. Devi submitted a mercy petition for the third time to the Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, at the Secretariat on Friday. She has already made a representation to the Governor once. Mr. Reddy was reported to have assured her that he would forward her petition to the Governor to invoke his constitutional clemency powers for the release of Ganesh.

Misses remission

Ganesh was permitted by the court to see the CPI (Maoist) leaders when they were in the city for talks with the Government under heavy police escort. In her petition, Ms. Devi lamented that Ganesh was not set free under the special remission granted to prisoners by the Governor in August last year. The special remission was not given to him because he was also charged under the Arms Act, a Central legislation. Having realised that remission could be granted in a murder case, notwithstanding application of Central laws on convicts, the State Government released some prisoners last month but not Ganesh. He did not qualify for remission by a few days.