SC To Hear Slain Forest Brigand Veerappan’s Elder Brother, Mathaiyan’s Plea For Remission Of Life Sentence Today

SC To Hear Slain Forest Brigand Veerappan’s Elder Brother, Mathaiyan’s Plea For Remission Of Life Sentence

A Supreme Court bench of the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, and Justices A.M.Khanwilkar and D.Y.Chandrachud will hear as the first item [Diary No.27345] on Monday, September 11, the plea of Mathaiyan, a life convict prisoner of Central Prison, Salem, Tamil Nadu, seeking remission of his life sentence.

Mathaiyan, 69, is the elder brother of the  sandalwood smuggler, Veerappan, and has been in jail since his arrest on July 28, 1987 in connection with a murder case.  He was convicted and sentenced to life in November 1997.

His petition seeking remission of his sentence was disposed of by the Madras High Court on December 16, 2015. The High Court had directed the Tamil Nadu Government to consider his plea. But the State Government did not consider it, as directed.

Mathaiyan alleged discrimination, as the Tamil Nadu  Government granted remission to other prisoners who had served at least 20 years of actual imprisonment, in terms of a government order dated November 10, 1994.   On July 28, 2007, when the state Government released hundreds of prisoners serving life sentence in exercise of its remission powers, his case was not considered for eligibility.

Before the  Supreme Court, Mathaiyan has made the State of Tamil Nadu as represented by the Secretary, Home, Prohibition and Excise Department, theAdditional Director General of Police and the Inspector General of Prisons, and the Superintendent of Prisons, Central Prisons, Salem as the respondents.

Advocate Kailash Chand is likely to argue his case.

Veerappan and two of his associates were killed by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force headed by K.Vijay Kumar on October 18, 2004 near the village of Papparapatti in Dharmapuri district,  Tamil Nadu.