R.BALAKRISHNA PILLAI RELEASED FROM JAIL

R.BALAKRISHNA PILLAI RELEASED FROM JAIL

Kerala Congress (B) leader and former minister R. Balakrishna Pillai, sentenced to jail for a year in a corruption case, was Tuesday freed under the remission granted by the state government on the occasion of state-formation day. The release orders were handed over by the Central Prison officials here to 78-year-old Pillai at a private hospital in the city where he had been shifted for treatment about three months ago. The Opposition LDF voiced strong reservation over the decision alleging the guidelines of the remission order were drawn up to help Pillai, whose Kerala Congress (B) is a partner in the ruling Congress-led UDF. Pillai's son Ganesh Kumar is the Forest Minister in the Oommen Chandy Government.

CPM veteran V.S. Achuthanandan, who had pursued the case against Pillai upto the Supreme Court, said the decision amounted to showing disrespect to the apex court and a challenge to the rule of law. As per the Orders issued by the Home Department yesterday, besides Pillai, 137 other prisoners would benefit from the grant of remission. Pillai was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a case of corruption in February this year, pertaining to awarding of contract for a tunnel of the Edamalayar hydropower project in 1990s when he was Power Minister in the then UDF government. Pillai ran into further trouble last month after he responded to a call from a local TV channel to his phone in violation of prison rules, following which authorities had extended his jail term by four days as penalty. Forest Minister Kumar was also in the eye of a political storm recently by making lewd comments against Achuthanandan at a public meeting in his Assembly seat Pathanapuram.

                                                                      Prof. John Kurakar