A year ago, on C N Annadurai’s birthday, a group of women staged a demonstration in Coimbatore seeking early release of their kin convicted of involvement in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts, the first serial explosions in South India that claimed 58 lives. As the state government ordered the release of 10 of those prisoners on Anna’s birth centenary this year, the decision has raised a furore.

The state unit of the BJP has already protested the move, asking the government to reconsider its decision. Some lawyers, who are fighting cases on behalf of the blast victims, and intellectuals have also voiced their disapproval.

According to critics, the choice of prisoners — those convicted under explosives substances, arms, conspiracy, murder charges — should be reconsidered by the state government. The case exposed the till-then undetected spread of the fundamental organisation Al-Umma that was behind the blasts.

Four persons who were injured in the blasts and the father of one of the victims have filed revision petitions at the Madras HC. The appeals are still pending before the court.

However, according to the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, all those who have been awarded remission would have received it even without the government largesse, as they were about to complete their sentences. The real term would have ended in a few more months, after calculating two days remission for 15 days in prison.

Last year, the state government had ordered the release of 1,405 life prisoners who had completed seven years in jail. Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had approached the Madras High Court opposing that decision. This year, the number was kept to a mere 10 and also those who have completed 10 years in prison. All 10 were sentenced for life for their involvement in the series of blasts on February 14, 1998, which targeted the then Home Minister L K Advani.

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