CONVICTED PRISONER DIES WAITING FOR REVIEW MEET

NEW DELHI: More than two years after he was declared terminally ill and unfit for incarceration, 76-year-old Krishan Govind — a prisoner convicted of the murder of his neighbour — died waiting for a postponed sentence review board (SRB) meeting to discuss his release from Delhi’s Tihar jail. On September 8, 1996, Govind and his son, Raju, had stabbed their neighbour Ram Niwas after a tiff broke out between Niwas’s wife, Shashi Kala and Govind’s wife over Kala spilling water inside Govind’s house. In 2000, both Govind and his son were convicted.

Govind, who had suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2016 and partial paralysis in 2017 was on the list of prisoners whose premature release was to be decided by the state government’s sentence review board on April 24 this year. However, a day before the meeting was supposed to take place, Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain, also the chairman of the board, postponed it.

Meanwhile, Govind — who was in jail since 1996 — died at Safdarjung Hospital on July 6.

Three days after his death, the government announced July 26 as the next date for the meeting. In that meeting, the board agreed to release 25 prisoners, five of whom are elderly, one is terminally ill, four are HIV positive and one is physically disabled.

Govind’s family member said the details of his case were also uploaded in the application for his early release. His name was number 5 on the list of prisoners whose case was to have been considered by the sentence review board on April 24.

On April 30, Hindustan Times had reported about the cases of 21 elderly and terminally ill prisoners, who were waiting for the government to hold the sentence review board meet. The report also highlighted Govind’s case. The Delhi high court, hearing a petition filed by a city advocate on the basis of the HT report, issued notices to the government and jail authorities on May 9 seeking an explanation as to why the meeting was not held despite directives being issued that it should be held once every three months.

In the petition, the advocate told the court that the government had not held one since December 14 last year.