Seven hundred life convicts, who have been serving their term for long in prisons across the State, will be released on the occasion of the birth anniversary of late former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai on September 15, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday.
During his reply to the debate on the demand for grants in the Police Department, Mr. Stalin said that the government would take steps to commute the sentence of 700 life convicts and grant them premature release on humanitarian grounds and as a gesture of goodwill. A government order in this regard would be issued soon, he said.
Mr. Stalin also announced that cases registered by the previous AIADMK regime against those who had staged protests against NEET and TASMAC shops would also be withdrawn. He also recalled that a total of 5,570 cases registered against those who protested against Citizenship Amendment Act, methane and neutrino projects, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant and eight-lane Chennai-Salem highway proposal, among others, have been withdrawn.
The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry (CoI) probing the police firing that led to the death of 13 anti-Sterlite protesters in Thoothukudi in May 2018, has submitted its preliminary report. The government has urged the CoI to submit its report latest by February 22. “We will definitely take further action after receiving the report,” Mr. Stalin said.
In the Pollachi sexual assault case investigated by the CBI, the DMK government has appointed CB-CID SP, Mutharasi, and was offering all support towards the probe so that the affected women got justice. “We have urged the Justice A. Arumughaswamy Commission constituted by the previous AIADMK regime to probe the death of former CM Jayalalithaa, at the earliest,” the cM said.
