Gouru case reaches SC

TNN / Aug 15, 2007, 02:20 IST

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A petition in the Supreme Court challenged the decision of the Andhra government to release Gouru Venkata Reddy, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his role in a political murder.

NEW DELHI/HYDERABAD: A petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenged the decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to release Gouru Venkata Reddy, a Congress activist who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his role in a political murder even as the AP government has announced that the proposed remission for several state prisoners on the Independence Day is likely to be delayed.
He is one of the 1,500 convicts the government has decided to release on August 15 to mark 150 years of the First War of Independence in 1857.
Interestingly, the then AP governor Sushil Kumar Shinde had on August 11, 2005, granted clemency to the ruling party activist, Gouru Venkata Reddy, despite the 10-year imprisonment being upheld by the apex court in 2003.
Criticising the governor for granting clemency in the case, the court had quashed his order made on the basis of a representation made by his wife Charita. On Tuesday, a bench comprising justices B N Agrawal and D K Jain did not stay the August 7 decision of the AP government to release 1,500 convicts, including Reddy, but posted the PIL filed by advocate R Chandrasekhar Reddy for hearing on Aug 16.

The court had severely criticised the governor for granting clemency on the ground that Reddy was a "good Congress worker'' despite the fact that all the courts, after scrutinising the evidence, had unanimously come to the conclusion about his guilt in the case of murder of a TDP leader.
Meanwhile, home minister K Jana Reddy told reporters on Tuesday in Hyderabad that the government had followed the same guidelines adhered to by the previous governments while releasing prisoners in 1995, 1997 and 2003, as well as the guidelines framed by the Congress government after it came to power in 2004.
He said all prisoners would have to execute a bond of Rs 25,000 and attend the nearest court every 3 months after release. He said that they had been receiving representations from various Left parties urging the government to show leniency in certain cases. He said the government had decided on Tuesday to lift cases booked against individuals in the conflict between tribals and non-tribals and on alleged Maoist couriers in East Godavari, West Goadavri and Khammam.

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